


Her Name Was Lola

by lovinthelads



Category: Football RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:59:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 49,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1065501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovinthelads/pseuds/lovinthelads
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of drug dealers in Miami, Florida.  It's a combination of fictional characters and footballers.  Cesc Fabregas is a young DEA agent in Miami, trying to fight the drug dynasty of Scarlet.  He was raised by his grandparents after his mother, Lola, abandoned him as a baby.  As Cesc learns about his past in the shadow of a mayoral election, a major drug war is beginning. </p><p>This was my Nano novel this year.  It's not had much editing, so please excuse :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Name Was Lola

The air was balmy as Lola, a well maintained forty something woman, climbed out of her BMG in the parking garage right behind the row of hotels and restaurants that over looked the famous sand and sea of Miami. Not that anyone who lived in south Florida ever much made note of humidity. You made sure that your hair was contained until you could get into the air conditioning.

She let herself in the back entrance of The Seven Room, an upscale restaurant which inhabited the first floor of a refurbished old Art Deco building swashed between two modern hotels. The kitchen staff waved at her, but there was a sense of tension in the air.

“Oh, it’s tonight,” Lola said to the bartender as she emerged into the dining room to find, Kiki, the bar manager stacking crates of wine. Kiki was a tall, willowy brunette who exuded the exact kind of charm businessmen wanted to imagine they had a chance with.

“Oh, yes, it’s tonight,” Kiki said as she paused to greet Lola. “And Cristiano is in a right mood, so you might want to scamper up the back stairs.

Cristiano, the gorgeous and charming owner of The Seven Club, was focused to put it mildly. The restaurant wasn’t one of the highest rated in the world by accident, and tonight they were hosting a political fundraiser for the mayor of Miami, Raul Gonzales, who was up for reelection this November. The guest list tonight included everyone who mattered in Miami- basically any and everyone who came regularly to The Seven Room and brought their rich, out of town friends and business associates along.

When you charged twenty five dollars for a glass of whiskey, you better damn well know how to kiss some asses.

However, before Lola could reach the back stairs which led to the night club upstairs, Cristiano came whirling in, barking into his phone.

“Mom, you know it’s tonight, it’s been on your calendar for a month. Yes, I know I usually keep CJ on a Tuesday, but I can’t tonight...”

Lola’s gaze settled on the tall, dark, and extremely fit man who was speaking, but at his words, drifted down to knee height where a curly haired little boy wearing a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack was trailing after him, holding a stuffed yellow toy and frowning.

“Lola!” the boy shouted as he spotted her. 

“Hey CJ you little monkey,” Lola said as the three year old barreled at her and threw his arms around her legs.

“Lola,” Cristiano said. “Mom, let me call you back.”

“Yes?” Lola asked as she curled her finger around a lock of CJ’s hair. 

“Lola, my mom forgot about tonight and is at a spa. She won’t be home until 8....”

“You want me to watch CJ?” Lola asked.

“Could you?” Cristiano asked, giving her a flash of white smile that made far stronger women than Lola crumble.

“Cris, you know I own a night club? A little place upstairs? The Copacabana?”

“You don’t open until nine. Lola? Please?” Cristiano asked and she could tell he was desperate.

“Pweese?” CJ asked as he turned his big brown eyes up at Lola.

Lola gave up. “Fine, but I’m feeding him pizza for dinner and not putting him to bed. Your mother better be here at 8.”

“She will, she totally will,” Cristiano said. He crouched down. “You be good for Lola, CJ?”

“I good, Daddy,” CJ said happily as he hugged his dad.

Lola did appreciate that Cristiano had a lot on his plate- a single dad who’s job didn’t exactly lend itself to parenthood. But he did have his mother who lived with them and did more than her share of childrearing. 

She took CJ’s slightly sticky hand and led the way to the stairs. On the way past, she caught Kiki’s eye.

“Sucker,” the grinning woman mouthed.

Lola rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the boy who was chattering about the toy under his arm.

“This is Dave. He’s a minion....”

Lola had no idea what he was talking about or what that funny little thing he was showing her was. It had large grey goggles on and appeared to be wearing overalls.

She ended up carrying it as CJ scampered up the plush carpeted stairs which Lola noted had been freshly swept. They were technically Lola’s stairs, but Cristiano was forever sending his staff to clean them. As though a bit of carpet fluff would put off the customers. Besides, the only people who came up these stairs were ones traveling from The Seven Room to the Copacabana, and always came with a stumble in their step. Everyone else used the elevator you could get to from the street. Lola’s philosophy of business said that if people noticed the state of the carpets, you weren’t doing your job to entertain them.

She unlocked the door and entered the quiet space. She always loved the club like this. Late afternoon, lights on, anticipation in the air.

CJ dropped his backpack and went scampered across the dance floor to the stage which stood at the far end of the club.

“I put on a show!” CJ declared as he dragged himself on to it, despite the stairs at either end.

There hadn’t been a show at the Copacabana since...

“The wait staff get younger every year.”

Lola turned to smile at her manager, Frank. He had stepped out of the office behind the bar, glasses he swore he didn’t need perched on his nose. Tuesday always meant balancing the books.

“Cristiano’s kid,” Lola gestured with the yellow stuffed toy. “CJ do you want Dave?”

“YES!” the boy held out his hands and Lola went to deliver it.

“Cristiano had a baby sitting mix up and the fund raiser is tonight.”

“Oh good,” Frank sighed. “Drunk businessmen who come upstairs and grope the waitstaff.”

Lola sighed. “Keep them away from Juan. He threatened to quit if he got harassed again.”

“He should encourage them like Fernando does,” Frank shrugged. “They tip better when they’re allowed to grope a little.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Lola said. “We run a night club, not a titty bar.”

“Lola! What’s a tit-tee bar?”

Frank burst out laughing as CJ had appeared back at Lola’s side, holding up Dave for Frank to inspect.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Lola said.

“Nice minion,” Frank said. 

“Thanks,” CJ scampered away again.

“He’ll be gone before we open,” Lola assured Frank. “Can you order us a pizza before we go over the books?”

“Pizza? Lola is ordering pizza?”

“Hush- CJ won’t eat anything from downstairs,” Lola said. “And get me a salad.”

Frank went to make the call as Lola watched CJ dance with Dave. She went behind the DJ’s booth and found a track that CJ might like. As the dance beat started, CJ let out a cry of happiness and he and Dave whirled around.

Lola smiled. Dancing used to make her that happy, too.

* * * *

Raul listened to the sounds of his partner, Guti, getting ready for the fund raiser tonight. He knew he should know better than to allow the impetuous blond to come along to one of the most important events for his re-election campaign, but Guti got so stroppy when he was excluded from things.

Even in liberal Miami, people were less than tolerant of the idea that their mayor had a male companion, though Raul's public facade was that of a widow who would never remarry after the death of his beloved wife. Everyone who knew Raul personally, or had eyes for that matter, knew that Raul's "friend" Guti was more than just a roommate.

Guti tried to behave for Raul's sake, but he was a social creature, and with all of the people there tonight, the alcohol and the lure of heading upstairs after to the night club, Raul just prayed Guti didn't do anything to embarrass him or get in the papers. He should have paid more attention when Iker had booked them into The Seven Room and realized what a bad idea it was.

"Honey?" Raul called as the hair dryer turned off.

"Yes?" Guti asked, his face appearing as he worked product through his blond locks.

"Guti, can you promise me something?"

Guti got a wary look. Not another "behave yourself" lecture...

"Can you go home with me right after the fundraiser? Not go up to the Copacabana?"

"You are actually not any fun any more," Guti sighed as he disappeared again.

"You know the election is just two months away," Raul said. "We can't afford..."

"I know!" Guti cut him off. "I can fucking behave like a good boy, alright?"

Raul sighed. Now Guti was likely to go upstairs just to spite him. He'd set Iker to keep an eye on him, though it would annoy his assistant to baby sit again.

Two more months. They were at a commanding lead in the polls anyway, maybe Raul didn't need to worry as much as he did.

* * * *

Iker stood near the door with his check list. He was shaking hands and smiling, greeting all the donors, and more importantly, making sure everyone who crossed the thresh hold for the thousand dollar a plate evening had paid for the privilege. That kind of money kept away the reporters and the sight seers, but there was always someone who turned up just to give it a try. The last thing they needed was someone with a recording device looking to get a Romney style scoop should Raul say something out of turn.

He looked up from his list after ticking off the Senator, and saw someone he really, really didn't want to see tonight.

"Well hello there, Mr. Casillas," purred a curvy brunette in a nearly indecent black sparkly dress. And on her arm was Pepe.

His ex.

"Scarlet," Iker said as he peered down at his list. Shit! How had he not seen her name. She must have been a last minute addition. He was going to have to fire someone for not warning him!

"Darling," Scarlet said as she kissed both of his cheeks. Pepe stood back, the tall bald man studiously not looking at Iker. 

"I didn't expect to see you," Iker said, trying to keep his voice level.

"I like to keep you on your toes," Scarlet said with a wink. "Pepe, darling, don't be rude, come say hello to Iker. You haven't seen him in ages."

Yeah, not since he disappeared one night, leaving Iker with an huge hotel bill and not even a note of explanation.

Iker tried to keep his face passive as Pepe regarded him.

Thankfully, an arrogant millionaire behind the pair cleared his throat as they were holding up the line.

"Why don't you two go on in and I'll catch up with you later?" Iker asked. You know, somewhere around the time that hell freezes over.

Scarlet claimed Pepe's arm again and the two disappeared into the restaurant. 

As the businessman approached, Iker could have sworn he heard the man mutter to his wife "drug dealers", but he could have been imagining it. Sure, he knew the rumors. He knew the fact that Pepe would disappear for days on end and turn back up with lavish gifts had to mean he was more than just a charter pilot to the islands. Sure, he could whisk Iker away to St Thomas for the weekend, but it didn't explain the five star resports.

Iker put it out of his mind as his phone beeped. Raul was arriving. He sent back a message to take another lap around the block as there were still several guests arriving. Never looked good to deny the donors their chance to see the entrance.

Appearances, Iker thought as he gazed around the crowd. It was all about appearances. He saw the glitter of the elite splayed out before him, sipping cocktails, being catered to, laughing at each other's jokes.

Iker hated this world. Hated the fake people. The false promises. The fact that they cared about things that had no value. The fact that Guti, the love of Raul's life, sat at a table, flirting with the waiter, finishing his second cocktail in an hour.

He supposed that's what had hurt the most about Pepe's betrayal. Iker had glimpsed a world where he could be happy. Lying on a beach with Pepe by his side. Drinking beers and making love until the sun came up.

His reverie was interrupted by the beep of his phone. Raul was here. Iker signaled to Cristiano and the wheels went into motion. 

Once Raul was in the room, Iker went to get a drink. There was a reason the rate of alcoholism went up with the average wealth of a population.

You needed to be numb to survive.

* * * *

Everything was running smoothly, Cristiano thought as he finally started to relax. Raul had made his speech, dinner had been served flawlessly, and now the drinks were flowing. His mother had collected CJ on time and taken him- hyper from the cola Lola had let him drink which had resulted in several annoyed texts from his mother. He let it roll off of him. The night had been a smashing success and one sugar buzzed toddler couldn't ruin that.

As the party began to wind down, he saw a few people head up the stairs to Lola's place, but not too many. It was a Tuesday after all. But one familiar blond head disappeared up the back stairs, and Cristiano turned to find Raul engrossed in a conversation with Scarlet.

The drug dealer.

So, it was probably a little unfair to call the woman a mere drug dealer. She was a bona fide drug load from all accounts. However, like anyone one who had survived many years in the illegal world, the stories about her we sketchy, and likely at least half lies, if not more.

Her presence probably also explained the presence of Carles and Cesc, two of the DEA's finest, looking awkward and every bit the police officers they were.

He supposed what mostly made them look out of place was that they, like him, had not had a drop to drink this evening. The looked bored.

Cristiano went over. "When are you off duty?"

Carles gave him a look. "You could pretend you don't know we're DEA."

"Sorry," Cristiano said as he took a seat next to Cesc. The table they were at had mostly cleared out.

Cesc looked incredibly uncomfortable. Young, barely out of college, he squirmed in his seat like a kid on the last day of lessons before summer holiday. Cristiano could see his dress shoes were too tight, and someone needed to teach the kid how to work a neck tie. "So, you think our mayor is involved in drugs?"

Carles's glare deepened. "You know why we're here."

"I do," Cristiano said. "And I also know that Pepe asked me to call upstairs and reserve a table for them in the VIP section.

Cesc slumped in his seat.

Carles looked ready for a drink. Or eight. Cristiano wasn't sure if it was the fact that Cesc was a lot of effort or going upstairs meant they would be out until dawn, likely.

"Sure I can't send Kiki over with a couple of beers? You'd look more natural that way."

Carles couldn't disagree. "Alright."

"Carles!" Cesc protested. "We're not supposed to drink on duty.

Carles didn’t reply to Cesc’s protest. The young rookie was about on his last nerve this week. Why his supervisor, Eliza, had stuck him with this kid, he would never know. (yes you do know why, Carles)

He kept his eyes trained on Scarlet across the room, martini glass in her hand, but Carles knew it was on the second she’d had and the first hadn’t been finished. Yes, this was a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

Next to her, Pepe had been unable to take his eyes off of Iker, Raul’s campaign manager, the entire evening. Not that the tall, dark man was unattractive, but Carles knew there was more there than aesthetic appreciation.

Carles made a mental note to look into the situation. As a matter of fact, they really needed to expand their investigation beyond following Scarlet about. She was way too smart and too rich to do any kind of drug dealing herself. No, Scarlet was the puppet master, pulling the strings. Even Pepe was probably not really worth looking in to. But Eliza was insistent: Focus on the head of the snake, if you cut it off, the rest will die.

“Carles, they’re leaving,” Cesc whispered.

With a glare, Carles realized the kid was right. Scarlet had Pepe by the tie and was leading him toward the stairs to the night club upstairs.

“Text the old lady,” Kiki advised as she set two beers down. “It’s gonna be a late one.”

Despite his protests, Cesc took a long gulp of the beer. He did not want to go upstairs.

“How about you go for us?” Carles asked the bartender who had made herself at home next to them. The place was nearly empty and she leaned back in the chair.

“Sure,” Kiki agreed. “How much does it pay?”

“Not much,” Carles said as he too took a long drink. “Come on, junior.”

Cesc made a face and got up, finishing off his beer. Kiki was impressed. In all her years tending bar, she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anyone down a glass of beer that fast.

Carles led the way to the stairs. There was a bouncer at the main entrance to the night club, but no one was there to question them as they pushed open the door into the throbbing music of the club. He supposed if you could get into the door of The Seven Club, you were acceptable for a night club.

Carles knew he was old when he’d never heard this music before and, quite frankly, couldn’t understand why anyone would want their music this loud.

The first person his well honed detective skills discovered was Simon- Scarlet’s associate, propping up the bar, trying to engage the bartender in conversation. This was hardly a conversation location, and Petr, the lanky bartender was easily able to retreat, leaving the be-speckled young man looking frustrated.

Carles had been here before and knew Lola ran a tight ship. She strongly discouraged relationships between the staff and even more so between the staff and customers. It was a good policy if you wanted to keep the drama in the workplace to a minimum.

“So...” Cesc said as they looked around for a place to be inconspicuous.

“We need to figure out which of the VIP areas they’re in. We should find Lola.”

Cesc thought that was a little obvious. Maybe they’d be less conspicuous if they didn’t spend all their time talking to the staff. Never mind the fact that the last person he wanted to see was Lola.

Carles was looking around for Lola. He could ask Petr, he supposed, but he’d just about have to shout across the bar, which would give them away in a heartbeat.

The next thing Carles knew, Cesc was at Simon’s side, offering to buy him a beer. What the hell was he doing?

“So, you come here often?” Cesc asked with a flirty smile.

“Sometimes,” Simon said, his eyes still on Petr who was returning to take Cesc’s order.

“Two more of what he’s drinking,” Cesc gestured to the drink before Simon and slid some cash across the bar.

“Coming right up,” Petr agreed and disappeared again.

Simon finally turned to Cesc. “Hi.”

“I’m Cesc,” he introduced. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Carles glaring at him. How Carles thought they were going to get into the VIP area by twiddling their thumbs, Cesc didn’t know.

“Is that your dad?” Simon asked as Carles’s glare permeated the pair of them.

“Something like that,” Cesc said as he pointed turned away. “What’s your name?”

“Simon,” he replied, watching Petr deliver the beers and the change which Cesc waved away.

“Suppose there’s somewhere we can talk?” Cesc asked with a hand on Simon’s arm.

“Uh...s-s-ure,” Simon stuttered. “My....friend...she got a VIP room?”

“Wow,” Cesc said with a triumphant glance at Carles. The look of death he got in return let him know that Carles was going to be giving him an earful later, but if Cesc could report back to Eliza about things he’d learned hanging with the VIP’s, there wasn’t too much that Carles could do to him. Other than glare and attempt to make his life a living hell. But it wasn’t like the surly detective didn’t do that most days anyway.

Scarlet saw Simon approaching with a DEA agent in tow and very nearly got up to slap the idiot across the face. Even if they hadn’t already clocked Cesc and Carles ages ago as DEA, one look at the way the man dressed and held himself screamed government agent.

“This is Cesc,” Simon said as he slid into the booth next to Pepe who glared at him.

“Hi Cesc,” Scarlet said with a smile. “What brings you here tonight?”

A flush crept up from under Cesc’s collar. 

This one would never be James Bond, thought Scarlet unkindly. 

“Just...you know. Hanging out. Meeting new people.”

“What do you do?” Scarlet pressed. His answer gained him some respect.

“Work in drug enforcement,” Cesc shrugged. “Nothing big. Trying to stop some of the trade in and out of Miami, but it doesn’t help when the dealers are better funded than we are.”

Simon choked on his beer. “You’re a COP?”

“No,” Cesc said. “Drug enforcement. Why, you a drug dealer?”

Scarlet laughed out loud. Oh, she liked this kid a lot. “What if we are?”

“Could you not tell me?” Cesc asked, pleading. “This is my first night out in ages and I really don’t want to have to call my bitch of a boss and turn you in and then not get to have any fun tonight!”

They all laughed, even Pepe who wasn’t sure if this kid was a genius or an idiot. He was leaning toward the latter, but in as much as this kid wouldn’t know a drug dealer if he sat right down next to one, they we’re probably safe.

Across the room, Lola had found Carles. “What in god’s name is Cesc doing over there at Scarlet’s table?” Lola growled.

“He thinks he’s a lone ranger, I guess.”

“He’s fucking going to get himself killed. I fucking told him when he got this insane idea to join the DEA in the first place he was fucking going to get himself killed, but oh no, he wanted to fucking make a difference,” Lola was fuming.

Carles supposed she had a right to be angry. Cesc was her only child, and while he’d been raised by his grandparents for most of his life, Lola cared about the kid.

“You want me to call Eliza and get him pulled?” Carles offered, having considered the idea already.

“No,” Lola sighed. “He already thinks I interfere in his life. I really don’t need to give him fresh ammunition to use against me.”

Carles nodded. “I’m keeping an eye on him. I don’t think Scarlet and her gang are here for any thing more than a night out, anyway. They were at the fundraiser downstairs before this.”

Lola laughed out loud. “Scarlet is backing Raul for re-election?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s doubled the funding for anti-drug trafficking enforcement in Miami over the past four years. Why in the hell would she be backing him?”

“Suppose Guti has anything to do with it?” Carles wondered as he spotted the blond in the VIP section adjacent to Scarlet’s.

“No,” Lola said as she watched the mayor’s lover grab the ass of Juan, her best waiter. She’d better go do something about that before Juan threatened to quit again. “Guti’s a lush and a playboy, but he’s not into drugs.”

Lola made her way to Guti’s table. “How is everything?”

Juan scampered away with a grateful look at Lola.

“Hello, Lola,” Guti said as he took her hand and kissed it. “Come sit with me.”

Lola allowed him to pull her down into the seat with him. He was sat with a crowd of people that Lola wasn’t sure even Guti knew the names of. Of course Raul was absent. There was no way the mayor could be seen at a place like this. Lola often wondered why the mayor was even with Guti.

“Lola,” Guti said. “We’ve been having an important political debate,” Guti said, his eyes bright with liquor.

“Have you?” Lola asked, amused. “Do tell.”

“Well, we wondered, if you know...like a tree falls and no one is around, does it make a sound?”

“Don’t follow you,” Lola tried not to laugh.

“So if no one runs for office, would anyone even fucking care?” Guti slammed his fist down on the table for emphasis and Lola had to rescue his glass of champagne from tipping over.

“Who would run the government if no one ran for office?” Lola pointed out helpfully.

“Who fucking cares?” the man next to Guti asked.

“Well, I rather like that the government fixes the roads and organizes the fire department. Those are rather helpful.”

“True, true.” There were nods of agreement around the table.

“And like libraries and shit,” someone pitched in.

“Exactly,” Lola said and bit her lip. Oh the entertainment value of drunk people. “Or even police.”

“Fuck the police!”

Lola got up. “I best see to my other guests,” she said as she made a hasty retreat. Intellectuals, the lot of them.

Yes, everything was going well for a Tuesday. Money being spent, drunks were cheerful on a Tuesday. She glanced at the next table and caught Cesc’s eye.

He nodded at her and Lola smiled brightly. Cesc didn’t glare at her. It was a good day, indeed.

* * * *

Fernando pulled down the leather pants with a sigh of relief. “I swear these things are making me sterile.”

Juan let out a bark of laughter. He was already in his jeans, counting up his tips. They were in the back room of the night club, and they had just closed. “Maybe if you’d get them in a larger size...”

“I had them in a larger size!” Fernando said. “The tips aren’t as good!” As he said this, he shook out the pants and bills fell out.

“One of these days Lola is going to catch you letting the customers stuff bills into your trousers and fire you!” Juan warned even as he looked longingly at the several twenty dollar bills Fernando gathered up in addition to the ones and fives. His bills for graduate school were high and he just about paid them with what he made at the club. But it might be nice to have a little more than tinned beans on toast for dinner once in awhile.

Fernando lived a good life. He had a flat just a few blocks from the beach while Juan shared a two bedroom flat near campus. Fernando ate at restaurants and went shopping in South Beach. He also had boyfriends and rich women to take him out places when he wasn’t at work.

Juan tried to tell himself that once he finished school he could get a better job that didn’t require him to let people grab his ass to make money, but others he wondered if it was worth it all. 

“You off tomorrow?” Fernando asked as he peered at the schedule. He never knew if he was working more than a day ahead.

“Yeah, but I got a paper due Friday.”

“Tomorrow is Wednesday,” Fernando said, confused.

“Which is two days before Friday. And the paper has to be 5000 words long.”

Fernando shook his head. “Why do you need to do that? What does it prove that you can write 5000 words on something someone else has already thought up?”

Juan didn’t want to think about him being right. “So I can finish this degree.”

Fernando shrugged and started to count out his tips. “I can’t believe you gave me Guti’s table. I think he put a hundred bucks in my pants!”

“I did pretty well with Scarlet. Did you see Cesc sitting with them? I thought Lola was going to explode.”

“No!” Fernando said. “Does that boy have a death wish?”

“He’s DEA. Honestly. Did he really think we don’t all know that? And that Scarlet was likely to reveal anything with him at the table?”

“Maybe he thought they’d be passing out drugs and he could arrest her,” Fernando smirked.

“Shut up, Cesc isn’t that dumb!”

“He doesn’t want to have a relationship with Lola,” Fernando said. “I wish she’d been my mum.”

“I think there’s a lot more to that story than we’re likely to know.”

* * * *

Raul sat at the breakfast table, his food untouched, his coffee going cold, as he stared out across the rainy morning on his patio. The paper sat before him, and he went to pick it up.

He promised, flitted through Raul’s mind as he tried to focus on the page in front of him. He promised he wouldn’t go upstairs. He’d behave.

And now it was 7 am and there was no sign of him.

Raul picked up his coffee and took a sip as he finally began to read.

And promptly spit the coffee half way across the kitchen.

“WHAT THE FUCK?”

Iker came hustling in. “What? What is it?”

Raul thrust the paper at him.

Iker took it trying to focus on the print. No one much read papers any more, except for Raul, with news and information coming so quickly via the internet, that it took Iker a while to figure out what he was looking for.

“Gianluigi Buffon Announces Candidacy”

Iker’s jaw dropped as well. “The election is in two months! How can he do that!”

“Fuck, I don’t KNOW,” Raul pulled the paper back and skimmed the article while Iker tried to process this all. The other party had put up a candidate, more out of habit than anything.

Raul skimmed the article.  It seemed that Gigi had registered to run as an independent months ago, but had never seriously joined the race. But it seemed new donors had been found and he was holding a rally today to announce his platform.

"Fuck," Raul said as he tossed the paper aside an stood up.  Iker collected the paper to see the story for himself, just as Guti made a painfully ill-timed entrance.

"Raul, my lover!" Guti swung in, obviously still drunk. "How about a little morning delight?"

Iker took the paper and ran for the office in the back of the house.

"One.  Fucking. Night. I asked you to not go out one fucking night and you come stumbling in here wanting sex!"

Guti got a pout on his face. "I went upstairs to get out of your way," he wheedled as he moved in closer to Raul.  "You know some of those donors don't like to see me there with you and that one table of bankers was giving me a look, so I went upstairs, and I was just going to stay for a little bit and then Simao and Bobo were up there.  I texted you, baby."

Raul began to soften as Guti ran his hands down his sides and rested them on his hips. "You did not text."

"I did, baby, on your personal phone.  You know you don't want me to text you on your work phone.  I asked if you wanted me to come back down, if you were ready to go and you never replied."

Raul relented.  He'd left his personal phone in the car.  "I'm sorry I yelled."

"You can make it up to me," Guti said as he kissed Raul's neck.

Iker cleared his throat.  "I'm sorry, Raul, but Gigi is on the morning news?"

"Gigi?" Guti asked as he stepped back, glaring at Iker.  "What is your ex lover doing on the news?"

"Running against me."

* * * *

 Eliza looked into Carles's still empty office and glared.  She knew that the senior detective and his partner had been out late last night trailing after Scarlet and her gang, but it was long past time for them to check in.

She knew he did this to punish her.  Punish her for Cesc.  Still punishing her for Xavi.  Didn't he know she punished herself for Xavi every day?

"Morning!" 

With a start, she realized that Cesc was stood behind her with a sack of doughnuts.

"It's nearly noon," Eliza grumbled at him even as he offered her a doughnut.  She pulled a jelly doughnut, her favorite, off the top.

"I know.  Carles was running through Starbucks.  He said there was a line.  Did you want your usual caramel double non fat soy latte with extra foam?"

"Yes," Eliza agreed.  She could never say no to a caramel double non fat soy latte.  Especially when Carles remembered the extra foam. "Anything to report?"

"Pepe's back in town.  And Simon was out.  He tells me that he's making a trip to South America this week."

"When did he tell you THAT?"

"The dumb fuck went and hit on him last night.  Invited himself to sit at their table," Carles growled as he put the latte in Eliza's hand.

"Cesc!"  

He shrugged as he chewed on his doughnut. Glaze crumbles fell out as he spoke, "They knew I was DEA, I put on a show of not knowing who they were, and Simon gets chatty after half a dozen beers."

Eliza groaned.  "File your report."

She left them and went to her office.

Carles helped himself to the rest of Cesc's doughnuts. "She's not going to be as tolerant when I tell her that you would have gone home with Simon if I hadn't pulled you away!"

"He would have passed out.  And we would have seen where they were staying."

Carles shook his head and went to turn on his computer.  Cesc was either brilliant or a certified idiot.  Carles generally assumed the latter.  However, his scores coming out of the Academy were some of the highest ever, so maybe not.

Cesc followed him into the office and tried to reclaim his sack if doughnuts. “I got a lot more information than you did, talking to the staff all night! You know Lola runs a clean place, so they never know anything!”

Carles ignored him, as he was well practiced in doing, and didn’t even stop Cesc from snatching the doughnuts back. Eliza had already eaten the jelly doughnut, anyway. “File your report. We’ll let Eliza decide what to do with you.”

“I didn’t get in trouble,” Cesc muttered through doughnut.

Carles snapped. “This time. You didn’t get in trouble this time. But it’s this kind of shit, this throwing yourself in front of the bus that’s going to get you killed one of these days!”

Cesc’s jaw fell open, half chewed doughnut on display.    
Carles sighed in frustration at the puppy dog look on his young features and turned away. “File your god damn report.”

* * * *

Scarlet turned off the TV, a wide smile on her face. There was nothing on the local news other than the news of Gianluigi Buffon running for office, and they’d even gotten several mentions on the national news.

“You look like the cat who got the canary,” said Andy, one of her local deals, said as he dropped, uninvited, into a chair on her patio. He was dressed like a pimp on a night out in his shiny suit, silk shirt half unbuttoned, and shoes that cost more than most people made in an average week.

To be fair, Andy did very well. He was arrogant, but he knew how to caress the buyers just right. He took care of all of Scarlet’s high end clients in the Miami area. And will only the odd misstep, was reliable.

Didn’t mean Scarlet liked the scum bag.

“I may have,” Scarlet said, but did not elaborate. Andy was on a need to know basis about her activities, and he did not need to know she was almost entirely bankrolling Gigi’s run for office. It had become clear, of late, that having a friendly face in office was necessary for her operations. Raul used to be happy to look the other way, but when heroin had started to infiltrate to the suburbs. Mr. and Mrs. Middle American, led by the local media, had started to run their mouths on the situation.

Scarlet did not deal in heroin and she fucking knew better than to deal to kids. All of her product was moved in the clubs and then on to other locations across the country and to Europe.

No, strictly speaking, Scarlet wasn’t the most moral of people, but she did have issues with getting kids hooked on drugs. Besides, they didn’t have the money to buy the high end product she sold. Not even the rich kids.

“Who do you have to fuck around here to get some coffee?” Andy complained. 

Scarlet’s butler appeared, a very well appointed young man with blond hair tucked behind his ears. He was carrying a silver tray of coffee which he set on the side and began pouring a cup for Andy.

“Danny, darling, can you bring my lunch? Pepe and I are headed to the airport at one.”

“Of course, Ma’am.”

Danny nodded, and there was a peek of tattoo sticking out from under his collar. Scarlet was forever amused how Danny liked to play butler. He was, after all, in charge of seeing to the house, but he could have done it in jeans and a tank top, for all Scarlet cared. But it did add a touch of class when important people came over.

Andy had perked up at the mention of lunch. You’d think he couldn’t afford to feed himself.

“Are we good for the week?” Scarlet asked him.

“Better than good. Moved everything Pepe brought. Is Simon going to Boliva this week? We’re low.”

Scarlet nodded. “Pepe is dropping him off and then circling back through Columbia. We’ll be fully stocked for Friday.”

“Excellent,” Andy said. “I’ve left the proceeds with the bank.”

Scarlet smiled. The bank was an ice cream shop she owned on South Beach. It was amazingly popular, though didn’t make a lot of profit. Who needed to when it was just a front to launder her money. Though certainly an auditor who didn’t get a monthly cash payment might have wondered how she did so well on a dollar a scoop. She often joked that it was because she imported her vanilla beans direct from South America.

Danny brought lunch for both of them as he knew Andy would make himself at home all afternoon whether he was invited or not. 

* * * *

“Why was Scartet at Raul’s fundraiser last night when we know she’s backing Gigi’s campaign?”

Cristiano looked at Lola across the table where they met for tea every Wednesday afternoon to compare notes on their businesses. It was much easier to sip tea and eat cake once a week then start shouting at each other once a month because Lola’s clients puked in the plants on Cristiano’s patio, or Cristiano’s guests snuck up the back stairs with drinks they’d bought at his bar because they were cheaper.

“How do you know she’s financing Gigi?”

“Did you see them selling South Beach Treats ice cream at the rally he held earlier?” Most people knew that the place was owned by Scarlet, and that she could probably not even afford the rent on the prime piece of South Beach real estate the ice cream shop sat on. Lola had seen Pepe and Simon behind the counter, not serving up ice cream, but looking like they owned the place one too many times for them just to be checking on business.

Cristiano shook his head. “You are observant.”

Lola smiled. “It’s good ice cream.”

“I know, you’ve got my son addicted to it,” Cristiano said. “Every day, Papi, can we get ice cream. And no, we can’t have what’s from the store, it has to come from South Beach Treats.”

Lola chuckled. “Speaking of which, I need to take him soon. But seriously, what do you think Scarlet is playing at?” Lola kept an eye on Scarlet and her dealers. She’d once confronted the woman head on, telling her that under no circumstances were there to be drugs dealt in her club, and Scarlet had grudgingly agreed, though the level of client who came through Lola’s club were exactly who Scarlet was dealing to.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

“I suppose she can keep Raul and his campaign from asking questions about where Gig’s money came from if Raul’s been cashing the same checks.”

Cristiano looked impressed. “They’ve got the wrong person working in the DEA. They should fire Cesc and hire you in.”

Lola sighed. “Don’t remind me he works there. Do you know that boy was cozying up to Simon last night at the club? Was he born stupid?”

“I better not answer that,” Cristiano chuckled, though he knew Lola was worried. “Have you talked to you parents about him?”

Lola sighed. “Butt your nose out of it Lola,” she mimicked her father. “He’s a grown man and he can work where he likes. At least he’s making a contribution.”

* * * *

Cristiano reached across the table and squeezed her hand. He knew her parents had thrown her out of the house when she was young because she’d chosen to be a dancer. And not even ballet or the theater. She’d been a show girl right here on the Miami beach. Lola didn’t talk much about her past, but Cristiano knew there was tragedy. Something had made her give up her only son to her parents to raise.

Something she never would talk about. He did know that she, like him, never drank alcohol, which was interesting considering their line of work. But just because Cristiano didn’t choose to drink himself, didn’t mean he didn’t realize how much money there was to be made from the drinking habits of others.

Cristiano looked at his watch. “I best get off to pick up CJ.” His son lived with he and his mother, but on some afternoons he went to day care because his mother had things to do and Cristiano had to get the lunch shift organized. That and Cristiano wanted CJ, an only child, to get some time in playing with other kids his age.

He had his own sad story to tell, too. Cristiano thought as Lola insisted that she take CJ out for ice cream later that week.

Everyone was at least a little damaged.

* * * *

Scarlet was a bit dismayed to find Andy trailing after her on the way to the airport. She started to wonder what, exactly he was up to. He usually dropped in long enough to make his reports and disappeared again.

“You should let me go on one of the drug runs some day,” Andy mentioned casually. “See how it all works.”

“It’s not internship day at the high school, Andy,” Scarlet said with a touch of scorn. “You don’t need to learn all aspects of the business. Pepe makes the deliveries. You’re our sales department.”

“Simon gets to do both,” Andy said with a pout.

“Because Simon was already in business for himself when we joined up.”

Andy fell silent for which Scarlet was grateful.

They arrived at the private air strip on the edge of the city and found it quiet. As much as law enforcement spent their time inconveniencing the everyday traveler through the main airports, they did little to inspect the comings and goings out of these private airports. Honestly, Scarlet could clean up all the drug trade in America if she was the head of the DEA. It wasn’t rocket science. It was the pure fact that those who controlled the drug trade had money. And in this world, money let you do whatever you wanted.

Pepe gave Scarlet a look as Andy disengaged his long limbs from her Ferrari and she just shrugged. Who knew? 

Simon was packing the plane and Andy went over to join him.

“So, do you get a lot of extra time on these trips?”

Simon glanced at Andy. “Not really. It’s not a vacation, you know.”

"Sure, I know," Andy said as he peered into the compartments where the drugs would be kept. Despite the general lax security of these kind of small airports, they took precautions that should some DEA agent get into his head to search, the cargo wouldn't be easily visible.

Officially the flight plans said they traveled to South America to take sight seerers to and from Miami. Strangely enough, they always seem to have just dropped someone off.

"You ever have extra space in the hold?" Andy asked as he sat in the passenger seat watching Cesc work.

"Not generally, no," Simon elbowed Andy out of the way as he moved the cooler full of drinks and snacks which would keep him and Pepe fed for the flight. The would stop along the way to refuel, but it was much easier to have supplies on board than to announce their presence by needing more than what was necessary.

"Andy, don't you have some clients to seduce?" Pepe asked as he climbed on board, and began preparing for take-off.

“Someone has to move this product in the clubs. I don’t see you helping out.”

“Maybe because I have better things to do than that. And I have actual skills like flying planes.” Pepe stared him down.

With a glare, Andy backed off and returned to Scarlet's car.

"Keep him away from me," Pepe told Scarlet as she stepped on board.

"Andy? He's harmless," Scarlet shrugged. "Back tomorrow?"

"Yup," Pepe said. 

"Be safe," Scarlet said as she handed a suitcase to Simon.

"Always are."

* * * *

Cesc sat at his desk and sighed. Perhaps he shouldn't have been quite so honest in his report for Eliza. But did Carles have to laugh at him when she came to tell him off? At least she had turned on him as well and they were both stuck at their desks for the rest of the week.

He looked at the stack of files he needed to enter into the computer. Honestly. He'd been to college and the academy. This was work a temp could handle.

A temp who hadn't run out of doughnuts, Cesc thought as he looked at the clock. He'd only been here two hours, it wouldn't really be wise to be seen sneaking out for lunch. 

He could get some coffee. However, that required walking past Carles's office.

He glanced at Carles's closed door. Getting out of his chair, Cesc attempted to sneak past the window without being seen. He made it all the way to the Keurig without being shouted at. As he placed the pod in the machine, he looked around shiftily, making sure Eliza wasn't near. Maybe there were some biscuits...

Score! In the top cabinet he found a freshly restocked supply of biscuits. Plain digestive, jammy dodgers, milk chocolate, oreos...Cesc shoved around the options, looking for the prize. At last, near the back, he found a tube of plain chocolate hob nobs- his very favorite. Stuffing one immediately in his mouth, he wrapped four more in a paper towel, shoving the tube all the way to the back and arranging the other cookies around it.

He made it back to his deck with supplies and smiled. See? He could be a proper undercover spy!

"CESC!"

Splash! The hob nob he'd been about to dunk crashed into his coffee. He let out a sigh and looked up at Eliza.

"Go pick up my lunch," she said. "I ordered at the Salad and Stuff cafe around the corner." She handed him a twenty dollar bill. “Make sure the salad is grilled chicken, not fried like they gave me last time- and the non-fat, non-dairy caesar dressing, please?”

Cesc opened his mouth to bitch that he was not her personal assistant, but then realized the cash meant sweet freedom from this paperwork. “Do you need a fork?”  
* * * *

Raul was poring over the budget report that he needed to make a speech on tomorrow and heard a commotion in the outer office. Setting down the binder he’d been paging through, he buzzed through to his secretary, Sergio.

“Something going on?”

“It’s a news crew,” Sergio said, sounding fully flustered. 

“What do they want?”

The intercom clicked off and through the door, he could hear Sergio asking the people just that. Raul sighed and got up. They certainly weren’t close enough to the election for the news people to have gotten this bold as to just start barging into his office. He opened it and found the News Channel 13 team led by ace reporter, Jenny Jenkins, and...

“Well, hello there, Mr. Mayor,” purred Gianluigi Buffon.

It took every ounce of self composure Raul possessed not to swear out loud. What the hell did he think he was playing at?

“Mr. Buffon,” Raul replied, well aware there was a camera pointed at him, and a reporter nearly in heat at the thought of a confrontation. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company this fine day?”

Sergio had a panicked look on his face. “Do you want me to call Iker?”

Raul waved him away.

“I just wanted to come and say hello and shake your hand,” Gigi said, his high wattage smile perfectly angled toward the camera as he held out his right hand. “Since we’re going to engage in battle here, I thought it only right to start with a friendly handshake and a promise that I intend to run a clean, gentlemanly campaign.”

“Mr. Mayor, how do you feel about this last minute announcement?” Jenny asked, microphone shoved under Raul’s nose as he awkwardly shook Gigi’s hand.

Thankfully, Iker had already prepared a statement for Raul, and years in politics quickly allowed him to download the appropriate response. “Of course I’m very happy to have Mr. Buffon throw his hat into the ring. The people need to had options when selecting the person they want to lead them forward in the coming years, and I look forward to some lively debates.”

There was a twinkle in Gigi’s eye. Gigi always knew when Raul was full of shit.

He pulled away his hand and focused his attention on Jenny. “I’m giving a press conference tomorrow afternoon which I’d love to speak with you at.”

Jenny grinned. “We look forward to hearing what you’ve got to say.”

“You should come too,” Raul said to Gigi as he backed away. “Sergio, do you want to give Miss Jenkins a press packet?”

“Of course,” Sergio said, the young man opened a file cabinet behind his desk as Raul walked toward his office. Expecting Sergio to close it behind him, he didn’t react when the door closed and didn’t realize that Gigi had followed him until he spoke.

“So tell me how you really feel about this.”

Raul turned, meeting the blue eyes of his former lover. “How do I feel?”

“Yes,” Gigi said. 

“Mostly I’d like to know why the hell you’re doing this? Why now? Why Miami?” Raul was safely behind his desk even as Gigi got closer.

“I believe that a change of leadership would be good for the city.”

“You are so full of shit,” Raul said even as his anger ebbed away. God dammit.

Gigi shrugged. “Interested parties have put up the funding for my campaign.”

“Do they really want you to win or are they just wanting to unsettle me?” Raul asked.

“Probably just unsettle you. I doubt as an independent I can get enough votes in two months to win,” Gigi said. 

“What do they want?”

Gigi smiled. “Now that would be telling.” Gigi leaned across the desk. “But maybe for the right price I could share it with you.”

Raul cleared his throat. “You should leave.”

“Probably,” Gigi said. “But I’m not going anywhere.”

* * * *

Simon was loading in the last of the product into the bay when he saw something wedged down the side of the passenger seat. 

“What the fuck is this?” Simon asked as he pulled out a large manilla envelope. “Pepe!”

“You rang?” Pepe struck his head in as he wiped the sweat glistening off of his bald head. It was more than a little warm in Bolivia.

“What is this?” Simon said as he shook the envelope. He turned it over in his hands, looking for some kind of marking, but there was none.

“I don’t know, open it,” Pepe said and Simon tore it open. Inside was several packets of caplets.

“What are these?” Simon asked as he shook several loose into his hand. Sniffing at it he frowned. “Is this heroin?”

Pepe grabbed one of the pills. “It’s heroin? Since when do we deal in heroin?”

“We don’t!” Simon said emphatically. “Scarlet refuses to get into it. Too much police pressure right now. No one cares about rich adults on coke.”

“So what the fuck is it doing in our plane?” Pepe asked. “And who’s it for?”

Their eyes met.

“Andy.”

* * * *

Cristiano could not believe his matire'd, Pipita, had called in sick again. It was the third time this week and the young man didn't seem to understand that hungover didn't technically qualify as sick.

"Kiki, who's on call today?" Cristiano asked as he slammed things around on his desk.

"David, but he's already coming in to cover for one of the waiters," Kiki said.

"Fuck," Cristiano said. "And I can't cover because I have those Chinese business men coming in that will require extra attention."

"Call the agency," Kiki said as she pulled a business card off the wall. "They can send someone."

Cristiano sighed. He hated calling the agency. Some times you got good help and some times you got people who thought working in a restaurant was beneath them and were rude to the customers.

However, he was desperate and made the call. They would have a young man there within the hours. Of course, black tie, sir.

Cristiano paced as he looked at his watch. It was nearly time for them to open at 5, though the early guests mostly were there for cocktails. He didn't need this, he...

"Mr. Ronaldo?"

Cristiano turned around and saw a breathtakingly gorgeous young man. 

"Hello," he said, offering a hand. "I'm Francisco- from the agency? But everyone calls me Isco. We open at 5?"

Cristiano nodded dumbly. 

"Is there somewhere I can leave my bag? I came right from the gym, thank god my tux was in the car and freshly pressed!"

"Sure, uh..."

"I can show him," Kiki said as she gave Cristiano an amused smile. There was nothing better than seeing your well put together boss flustered over a good looking man.

"I've never been in here before," Isco said as he looked around the dining room on their way to the back. "I've heard about the place, though."

"Best in the city," Kiki said proudly. She took him to the staff room which was clean and well organized. "You can use this locker. It's a spare."

"Wow," Isco said, as he was used to jamming his bag under a table and hoping no one got in it.

"Cristiano is a great boss," Kiki said. 

"Don't suppose there's a chance you need a permanent Maitire'd?" Isco asked hopefully as he   
put away his things, turning off his phone.

"Considering the person you're replacing has flaked out three times in the past couple of weeks, you might want to consider this an audition."

"Cool, thanks," Isco said gratefully.

He headed back to the front to get instructions from Cristiano and Kiki got out her phone to send a text to Lola. "Come check the temp man candy."

* * * *

As she waited patiently for the sound guy to remove her mic, Jenny checked her phone. "Wonderful report, darling. You could see the panic in Raul's eyes."

Jenny grinned as she sent back: "It was too easy. What a stroke of genius on your part to bring in his ex."

"It was almost too easy," came the reply. "You want to meet for drinks?"

"Of course. The Seven Room?"

Jenny put away her phone and went to change out of the suit she wore on air. It was expensive and utterly without character. Bland and unthreatening, just like America's viewing public wanted their women.

She changed into something not quite as bland, but acceptable for a local personality to be seen wearing in public. If she wanted one of the national TV spots, she could not afford any scandals. This election could be just the thing to jettison her into the national spotlight.

At the Seven Room, she eyed the young man who greeted her. He was new.

"A table, ma'am?"

"Just meeting a friend for drinks," Jenny said. Like she ate after four pm. 

"Of course, let me show you to the bar. Would you like to leave the name of your friend so I can bring her right over?"

"Scarlet."

She was shown to a table in the bar, and immediately saw Lola sitting at the end of the bar, talking to the bartender. She quickly looked away. 

Kiki noticed the slight and leaned in to Lola who had not noticed herself as she was busy watching the back end of Isco depart. "Now why is Jenny Jenkins unhappy to see you?"

Lola looked over at the well preserved woman and smiled. "Oh, Jenny and I go way back," she said with a trace of bitterness in her voice. "We were at school together."

"You went to school with Jenny Jenkins?" Kiki asked and realized she'd said that louder than she intended. "But..."

"Yeah, she only claims to be thirty-two, which is bullshit," Lola said.

Kiki didn't know exactly how old Lola was, but he son was out of college. Even if she'd had him really young she had to be over forty.

"Anyway, so Isco. Do you love me enough to bring him upstairs after you close?"

Kiki grinned. "I might do. You fancying a one night stand with the temp."

Lola laughed. "God, I wish. Mostly I just wanted to look at him some more."

"He's got Cristiano all flustered, so just be aware," Kiki advised.

"Cristiano knows a good looking boy when he sees one," Lola grinned. The smile slid off her face when she saw Scarlet enter and make her way to Jenny's table.

"Now what is that all about?"

* * * *

It was after nine and Cesc was still at his desk, now absorbed in the reports that Eliza had given him. Once he'd finally settled in to work on collating the data in them, he'd realized that the flight plans out of the West Miami Executive Airpark were often incomplete and conflicting. The DEA monitored the plans to see if they could catch any of the dealers comings and goings, but with their limited manpower and resources, the reports often went unfilled and unanalyzed.

There was this one jet, owned by a S. Kop that was making regular flights to Bolivia and Columbia with sight seeing being listed as it's primary business. Were there really that many private flights needed to take in the sights of Bolivia?

He sent Eliza a text. "Do we know who S. Kop is?"

There was a pause as he waited for the reply, and Cesc realized he was alone in the office. When the hell had everyone gone home?

"S. Kop? No idea. What are you doing?"

"Looking at these reports," Cesc replied. "This jet owned by S. Kop has some questionable patterns."

"Call the airport in the morning. Now go home."

Cesc tossed his phone on the table with a frown. He knew he couldn't sleep until he sorted this out. S. Kop...

He called Carles. "Do you know who S. Kop is?"

"Do what?" Carles asked. He was at the gym and the ringing phone had interrupt his music in the middle of his push-ups.

"S. Kop. Owns a plane that seems to like to sight see in Bolivia."

"Who sight sees in Bolivia?"

"I hear it's lovely this time of year," Cesc joke and Carles was less than amused.

"Talk to Leo upstairs. He knows everyone."

Cesc hung up and made for the stairs. Leo was a strange little computer geek who was in the office at all hours, and true to his reputation, he was leaning over his computer, his face bathed in blue light.

"Leo!" Cesc said, causing the man to start.

He looked up at Cesc. "Yes?"

"Who is S. Kop?"

"S. Kop?" Leo asked even as he began to type it in. "He owns several properties in town."

"And a plane," Cesc said as he leaned on the edge of Leo's desk, watching his finger whirl across the keyboard.

"Yes," Leo said a he perused the results. "A jet....several buildings in South Beach...including the one that houses South Beach Treats."

"South Beach Treats! Scarlet owns that!" Cesc said as he nearly slid off the desk. "Scarlet owns a plane that makes frequent trips to Bolivia and Columbia."

"Sounds like she's running drugs, to me." Leo pushed his glasses up on his nose.

Cesc did a dance. Oh, he was so back in Eliza's good graces for this one!

* * * *

"So, do you want to hit The Copacabana?" Jenny asked, having had several cocktails and in the mood to party.

"Sure," Scarlet agreed as she checked her phone. She had a text from Simon. Probably just letting her know they'd made the pick up, but she checked it anyway.

"We've got a problem."

"Excuse me," Scarlet said as she stood and dialed.

"Sure," Jenny said as she too checked her phone. Maybe this evening was a good time for a booty call.

"Yes?" Scarlet asked as soon as Simon answered.

"Someone stashed heroin on our plane. Any guesses who that might be?"

Scarlet felt her teeth grind in anger. "That little shit."

"Yeah, it's not much, but it's more than enough to get us all sent away," Simon said.

"What did you do with it?" Scarlet asked. 

"Dumped it!" Simon said. "We're on our way back."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do..."

Scarlet finished her call and came back to find Jenny paying the check. "I can't stay," Scarlet said. 

"Oh, no worries," Jenny said. "I've got to go, too." Jenny was a little unsteady on her feet.

"Let me call you a cab," Scarlet said.

"Thanks!" Jenny agreed. "I'm off to see...a...a friend."

Scarlet watched the woman lie badly. "Just be careful." Scarlet knew that the news woman was a very good contact to have, and her help in getting Gigi on the news and the front page of all the websites was key, but the woman had appetites that were likely to get them busted. 

But then again, Gigi was single, and there were worst people he could have turning up for a midnight booty call than the most beloved news anchor in Miami.

* * * *

Fernando saw the man walk in and licked his lips. Yes, please.

"He's with Kiki," Juan pointed out as he breezed past.

"So?" Fernando asked, following the man with his eyes as he went to the bar with Juan.

"So...he's staff downstairs or he's with Kiki."

Fernando shrugged. "Some times you go home with a guy just because he's hot, not because he has money."

Juan laughed at Fernando's logic and entered his orders into the computer and swiped the credit card. He'd gotten a table with a bachelorette party and the bride-to-be was already swaying. He hoped they lasted long enough to leave a big tip.

Kiki who led Isco to the bar. Once they had ordered drinks, Isco looked around. "This place is crazy!"

"This is just a Thursday," Kiki replied as they watched a woman in a veil dancing on a table. Juan was trying to get her down.

Lola spotted them and came over to say hello. Isco looked her over. She was quite attractive for an older woman. And Isco did like an older woman.

"Isco, this is Lola. She owns the place."

An older woman with money.

"Nice to meet you," Lola said with a flirty smile. Maybe she could just go home with this guy. Maybe...

Fernando slithered up. "Hi."

Lola gave him a glare of death. "Don't you have customers to see to?"

"I'm on break," Fernando said. "I'm Fernando."

"Isco," he replied with an amused look. Heavens the people around here were friendly. About the only person who'd not tried to get into his pants this evening was Kiki. The freckled waiter was attractive. But he was a waiter. Lola was the boss.

After a few minutes, Fernando gave up, and making his retreat and out of the corner of his eye, saw Juan laughing at him.

Dick head.

* * * *

Scarlet was waiting on the tarmac when Pepe and Simon arrived back on Friday morning. She was drinking a venti latte with two extra shots. She'd been up all night trying to decide what to do about Andy. On one hand, she needed to make an example of him. If anyone found out he'd done this and wasn't punished severely, other dealers in the area would be on her in a minute, and she'd fought too hard, too long, to earn her position in Miami to let it go for an idiot move by Andy. However, Andy was a good dealer, and the last thing she needed to do was lose him and have to replace him with someone who might not bring in as much profit. She did not need to be training a new dealer.

Pepe looked grim as he disembarked inside the hangar. "Have you killed him yet?"

"He hasn't answered my text," Scarlet said. 

Simon climbed out as well, looking annoyed. "He was screwing around in the plan yesterday. He must have left the cash and arranged with someone at the other end. Quite frankly, it's a little surprising that Andy could even arrange something like that."

"And nearly pulled it off," Scarlet shook her head. "He was acting strange yesterday. I should have noticed, but I've got my head full of the election. Thanks for catching it."

"Hey, it's our asses on the line too," Simon said and returned to the plane to begin unloading.

Pepe leaned on the back of Scarlet's car. "What are you going to do with him?"

"I have to get rid of him, don't I?" Scarlet asked in a low voice. Pepe was the only member of her organization she trusted to show her vulnerabilities with. He'd been on her side forever and had no interest in being in charge.

Pepe shrugged. "If you don't, he's going to jump on the weakness, or worse, leave you to start out on his own."

"Or join up with someone else," Scarlet sighed. 

"Taking all of his connections with him," Pepe said. "I'll get his phone and Simon knows most of his contacts."

"Simon's not going to be happy to have to take over some of his deliveries," Scarlet said.

"No, but he knows the score. We need to bring Isco up town anyway. Did he text you that he may be about to score a job at The Seven Club?"

"Saw him there last night," Scarlet smiled. "And he was getting friendly with Lola."

* * * * 

Cesc was fair bursting when Eliza gave him permission to go check out the air park. S. Kop's plane had landed just that morning and while it was likely clear of product by now, Cesc wanted to get a look at it and see if he could get anything from it.

Carles was happy to get out into the field again. Eliza hasn't loaded him up with paperwork after their escapade the other night, but neither was she willing to get him a new partner. He grudgingly had to admit it was a great catch by Cesc to link the plane with South Beach Treats. Not that he would ever tell Cesc that.

"I wonder what S. Kop is anyway," Cesc was chattering as they drove their non de-script grey sedan to the air park late that morning. So non de-script that everyone immediately saw it was a cop car.

"The Kop is the name of the stands where the hard core fans sit at Liverpool."

"Liverpool?" Cesc asked. "Like, soccer?"

"Football, yes," Carles said. "Scarlet is a massive Liverpool Football Club fan."

"We should have seen that before, then," Cesc said, unknowingly insulting Carles for not having made the connection.

Carles scowled. It was true he wasn't quite as with it as he used to be. To be fair, he never really had to be. Xavi had always been the brains in their partnership, and Carles had the instincts. To be fair, Cesc was pretty bright, as evidence by his discovery yesterday, but Carles just didn't respect him the way he had, Xavi.

"Should we park in the front lot?" Cesc asked as he pulled into a parking lot full of cars much more expensive than their government issue model.

"Might as well," Carles said. Cesc seemed to forget they weren't undercover agents some times. Scarlet was going to know they were here. There was no sense sneaking around like a couple of idiots.

The manager of the place was reluctant to let them in the hangar where Scarlet's plane was parked.

"I could get in trouble for this," said the whiney man in a cheap suit.

"Look," Carles said. "We could go get a warrant, drag the court into this, and then your facility is on record for having been searched which is going to put off your clients, am I right?"

"We just wanna have a quick look," Cesc threw in. "Won't be five minutes."

"Alright," the man agreed and Carles was relieved. They weren't looking for any evidence they were going to admit in court, anyway. If they saw something they wanted to, they'd get a warrant, anyway.

However, when they opened the door, they realized they'd found a lot more than they'd expected.

"Call Eliza."

* * * *

Pepe was pulling back into the lot when he saw the trio headed for the hangar. Oh...mother...fuck...

He'd had to go back to Scarlet's place to get supplies to dispose of the body as he hadn't meant to be doing it this morning, but when Andy had turned up unexpectedly, it had to be done. He'd thought surely it was safe to leave him on ice for a couple of hours.

"Scarlet, we have a situation."

* * * *

Cesc's stomach went on him when he saw the body. It wasn't that he'd never seen a dead body before, but the shock of it did him in. The way Andy's lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling of the hanger made him lose his doughnuts.

The manager had gone running back to the office to call the police and Carles watched Cesc puke all over the grass outside the hangar.

Carles knew the man. Andy Carroll. He'd been arrested on possession charges when he was nineteen and done several months for distribution in his early twenties. But since then, he'd gone off their radar. He'd been seen around Miami, looking wealthier than a high school drop out should, but he'd gotten smarter from the experiences, apparently. Carles should have suspected him.

Off your game, Carles, he thought to himself as he handed an handkerchief to Cesc to wipe his mouth.

"Sorry," Cesc muttered as he cleaned himself up. "I just..."

"It's okay, kid," Carles said. "It happens."

"Don't tell Eliza? Cesc begged.

The flashing blue and white's came screaming down the road and drove straight onto the tarmac, surrounding the building.

Carles was very thankful when Detective Sami Khedira stepped out of the lead car. Oh good, they were in his jurisdiction.

"It's a little late in a morning for a dead body," he said as he approached Carles.

They shook hands and Carles introduced Cesc. "Detective Khedira, this is Cesc Fabregas, he's my new partner."

"Nice to meet you, Cesc," Sami said. "So, we got dead drug dealers here?"

"Andy Carroll," Carles filled him in as the pair entered the hangar with Cesc trailing behind, trying to kick sand over the mess he'd made.

God, his mother was right, he was so not cut out to be a detective. One freaking dead body and he was a wreck.

"That's Carroll alright," Sami confirmed, not even flinching as he looked down at him. As a veteran homicide detective in Miami, it took a lot more than a dead body with some blood leaking out the back to make him take notice. "Got any idea who did it?"

"Cesc was suspecting that Scarlet owns this plane," Carles said, and Cesc nodded, trying not to show his elation that Carles was giving him credit for the find.

"It's registered to an S. Kop, but we're fairly sure that's an alias for Scarlet," Cesc said, his confidence returning.

"You want to get your people in here to dust the plane and we'll take care of the body?" Sami asked, grateful to be working with reasonable DEA agents rather than some of the cowboys you got at the FBI.

"Sounds like a plan," Carles said. "My boss has a team assembling as we speak."

"You still working under that ball buster, Eliza?"

"Not under so much any more," Carles said with a wink and Sami let out a bark of laughter.

Cesc turned pink.

* * * *

It really was Isco's week, he thought as he caught a taxi's outside Lola's apartment and gave the driver Scarlet's address. He's just gotten a message from Cristiano, offering him the job full time and a text from Scarlet, saying she needed him immediately for some work. He was going to be rolling in the cash.

He looked out the window of Lola's posh neighborhood. Owning a night club on this beach was a license to print your own money. This was the kind of life he was meant to lead.

Though the house Scarlet owned up the beach was certainly something to aspire to, as well. He did well with the side work he did for Scarlet, but he didn't really want to get into the drug trade full time. Yes, it was serious cash, but you always had to look over your shoulder. He'd grown up in that kind of neighborhood, and he didn't want his kids living that kind of life.

Scarlet was in a rage as Danny showed him in. Simon sat with his head in his hands, and Pepe was no where to be seen.

"Isco," Scarlet said, taking a deep breath. "We need to talk."

"Sure," Isco said, shooting a look at Simon who blanked him. What the hell was going on? Scarlet was usually very well composed.

"Everything alright."

"No, but don't worry about it," Scarlet said as she lead him to another room. How many sitting rooms did this place have, anyway. "Andy isn't going to be working with us any more, and I wanted to talk to you about increasing your work to take over some of his share."

Isco took a deep breath. Shit.

"Well," he said, "I'm not sure I can right now."

"Excuse me?" Scarlet said, and he could see some of her rage returning.

"Well," Isco said as he tried to think of a way out of this. "I just got hired on a The Seven Room. You know you've been trying to break in there, and now I'm perfectly positioned for that. I can't take on Andy's stuff and get those new clients in."

Scarlet sighed. He had a point. "And I see you're also working your way upstairs?"

Isco grinned. "Let's say Lola is in hand."

"Fuck," Scarlet shook her head. "I mean, this is all good, but I'm still going to need you to make a couple of drop offs for us today. Think you can handle that?"

Isco nodded, knowing that he'd gotten as far as he was getting today.

* * * *

"Dead drug dealer at the Executive Air Park," Iker said as he stuck his head in Raul's office. Sergio was glaring behind him, forever hating how Iker went straight to Raul with out acknowledging his role as the keeper of the door.

Raul's eyes widened slightly. "So we need to fix my speech for this afternoon?"

"Gigi is on camera right now discussing how we've botched this up already," Iker confirmed.

"What...how?"

"I don't know, something to do with murder rates in the city increasing."

"It's a dead drug dealers. It's a good thing!" Raul ranted. "For the love of god, is this the way things are going to be for the next two months."

"Probably," Iker said a bit apologetically. 

"Okay, we've got an hour- get me facts. I want facts and figures showing that the murder rate is going down, not up. I want something talking about how the death of this criminal is helping rid our streets of crime. Something glorious about our boys in blue serving and protecting."

Iker made notes as Raul rattled off the cliches. In the back of his head, he wondered if it was enough. Did Raul have the charisma and support to beat someone like Gigi?

 

* * * *

Jenny checked her lipstick in the mirror as the director gave her the sign that they were going live in less than a minute. Thankfully, it was a sunny, clear day and Jenny looked good as she prepared to report from the scene of a gruesome murder. Well, outside the fence from the gruesome murder. Jenny had no wish to have anything to do with actual bodies. No self respecting reporter trying to maintain her image, would.

“Good afternoon, Miami,” Jenny intone in her best “this is serious stuff, kids” voice. “I’m at the scene of a rather disturbing event here in our city. Just behind me in this air plane hangar lies the body of a young Miami man, cut down in his prime.

“The most recent news we have is that this may have been a drug deal gone bad.  With me here today is Detective Sami Khedria of the Miami Police Department.  Detective Khedira, what can you tell us about this crime?"

Sami was trying not to look as annoyed as he felt. He had nothing to tell them.  Not officially, anyway. "There was a body discovered late this morning.  It has since been identified as Andrew Carroll, a local man who appears to have met with foul play." Sami was so good at the bullshit, it rolled right out of his mouth.  Appears to have met with foul play in that someone appears to a put a bullet through the back of his head.  You know, probably on purpose.

"Can you confirm that drugs were a factor in this crime?"

"No," Sami said even as the bright DEA badges on the back of the jackets of the agents behind him could be clearly seen on camera.  Look, woman, I can't tell you anything.  "There will be a statement made when more is known."

Jenny was annoyed but kept her concerned reporter facade in place.  Nothing?  You couldn't throw her a speculation?   "Thank you detective. We'll bring you more news when we have it.  For now, all we know is that today's events have lead to the death of Andrew Carroll an upstanding young man who’s life was tragically cut short.  Back to you in the studio."

* * * *

 

Lola watched the news report with a trace of amusement on her features.  Andy Carroll?  a fine, upstanding young man who’s life was tragically cut short? Not that any death wasn't tragic, but Andy was a sleazy drug dealer. Not that five other drug dealers weren't waiting in the wings to pick up his clients.

She was watching the report on the computer in the back office. Frank was helping Petr stock the bar for a busy Friday night and Lola had just logged in to check her email and come across the story.  She was about to shut it off when on of the figures in a DEA jacket turned around and she caught a glimpse of a too familiar face. He looked serious as he spoke to the police officer next to him. Serious and confident. 

Involuntarily, Lola touched the screen. Her only son, it broke her heart every day when he acted like he didn't want to know her. She knew a lot of it wasn't his fault. She did abandon him when he was a baby. Left him at his grandparents' doorstep and never got in touch with him for fifteen years. 

But his grandmother hadn't helped. She had poisoned his mind to her. More or less told the child that his mother was a whore who never loved him. Her mother felt like Lola had been a failure, certainly not due to bad parenting.  Lola's first choice never would have left her child with her, but at the time, she had no options. She was just grateful they'd taken him in so that she knew where he was and that he'd be safe. 

She'd watched him grow up through photos her father brought her several times a year when they would meet behind her mother's back. When Cesc started high school, they had agreed that he was ready to meet her. 

Cesc had come along to the meeting, but it had been strained at best. Cesc had his eyes set on a career in law enforcement and didn't have time for a woman who had abandoned him. When Lola had questioned his career decisions, Cesc had balked, wanting to know who she thought she was, coming in and telling him what to do with his life. Lola had backed off at that point, knowing that his happiness was the reason for everything she did, no matter how much it hurt her. 

They'd met several times over the past ten years, but it still wasn't a comfortable relationship. Cesc had never asked why she'd had to give him up, choosing to believe that she'd been a slut who'd gotten herself into trouble and given him away, not even knowing who his father was. 

Maybe some day Lola would have the strength to tell him about his father. About how excited his father had been when he'd found out Lola was pregnant. How Lola was ready to give up her career as a showgirl and devote herself to motherhood. How tragedy had destroyed everything. 

"Lola?"

Lola looked up from the computer where the news report had faded into an advertisement for used cars. Frank was stood in the doorway. 

"Are you okay?"

Lola realized the were tears running down her face. Hastily wiping them away, she mentally shook herself. "Yes, no, I'm fine. Did you need something?" 

"Petr wants to go over a couple ideas with you, got a minute?"  

"Yeah, I'll come out and see you."

Frank respected Lola's privacy and ducked back out of the office. 

Lola sighed as she wiped her eyes. It was never going to get any easier, was it?

* * * *

"There's my favorite agent," Eliza praised as Cesc and Carles returned to the office.  She beamed at Cesc and ignored the scowl on Carles's face.

"We found us a dead drug dealer on the property of one of the top drug lords in the county!" Cesc said with a laugh as he got a high five from one of the other agents. 

Eliza laughed with him.  "Amazing work, people.  The MPD won't have anything up for us until at least tomorrow morning.  Why don't you guys head out and get me a report for Monday.  Scarlet is going to go underground for a little bit."

"We need to link her to Carroll," Carles felt the need to splash the cold water of reality on their little appreciation party.

"Leo's on it.  There was some surveillance of Andy at her house not that long ago, and his arrest records might bring us link too. I told him to call Cesc when he gets something."

Carles felt the sting of the implication that Cesc was leading the charge on this. He was the senior partner, after all.  He should be on point for this.

Cesc went to his desk and Carles followed Eliza to her office.

"Can I help you, Agent Puyol?"

He closed the door.  "You're putting Cesc in charge of the case to run down one of the biggest drug lords in the city.  Someone who just shot a dealer in a public place and left the body?"

"Cesc did a lot of background work on this. Might I add a lot more work than you've done in the past months."

"You're still fucking punishing me, aren't you!" Carles yelled.  "Six months later and you still fucking blame me."

"You were supposed to have his back!" Eliza exploded.  "You were supposed to take care of him!"  

Carles let out a mirthless bark of laugher.  "I still never figured out what you were more mad about.  The fact that he went out without me that night and got himself killed or that the reason he was alone was because I was out drunk after you broke it off with me and you blame yourself."

Eliza slapped him across the face.  "How dare you."

Carles grabbed her arm. "Yes, I should have answered the phone when he called.  I wake up every single morning and hate myself because I didn't answer my phone."

Tears had sprung into Eliza's eyes.  "Why did he go by himself?"

"I don't know," Carles said as he tried to keep himself from crying as well, and was losing the battle.  "I blame myself because I can't stand blaming him."  He let go of her arm and she backed up a little bit.

"He was always doing that," Eliza said quietly.  "He'd get a crazy idea in his head and he wouldn't let it go. When he knew he was right, he..."

"And usually one of us was there to reign him in."

Eliza leaned on her desk.  "I'm sorry."

"For what?"  

"For blaming you.  Maybe you would have gone with him and gotten killed as well.  We'll never know."

Carles nodded.  "I worry about Cesc.  I just..."

"Cesc isn't Xavi," Eliza quietly reminded him. "I know he's and eager kid, but he's not Xavi."

"He puked when we found the body," Carles said with half a smile and Eliza let out a laugh.  The light in her eyes reminded Carles why he'd let himself fall for her when he knew it was a bad idea. "Thankfully managed to do it away from the crime scene."

"Oh Cesc," Eliza said affectionately.  "Take him out for a beer, okay?  Let him know he's done good work here and talk him through it.  Let him take the point on this one and help him do it right?"

Carles nodded.  "Okay."

"Thanks," Eliza said and watched him walk out.  She knew assigning him someone like Cesc with youth and enthusiasm was just the ticket to helping him recover from what had happened with Xavi.  Maybe Cesc would heal them both.

* * * *

"What are you doing tonight?" Sergio asked as Iker approached the open door of Raul's office.  Raul had gone right home after his press conference, claiming a headache which Iker was sure he wasn't faking.  The last few days had been more headaches than either of them wanted to deal with.

Iker paused, a file under his arm. "Uh, going to bed?  Getting up early to take Raul to a rally on the beach?"

"So boring," Sergio complained.  "Come on, go to a club with me tonight.  Have you been to the Copacabana?"

"A club?" Iker asked as he pulled away to go set the file on Raul's desk.

"A bar then.  Come on, grab a drink and a burger?"

Iker had no idea why Sergio was asking, but Raul's attractive secretary was hard to say no to.  "Yeah, alright."

Sergio beamed. He locked the door to Raul's office behind Iker.  "Let me finish this email?"

“Sure,” Iker agreed. Maybe this was what he needed. A night out of the office where he didn’t have to think about all of this madness. Raul had Guti to go home to to take his mind off of things, but Iker went home to an empty house.

Since things had ended so badly with Pepe, Iker had shied away from the dating scene. He’d been so full on in love with Pepe that his heart still wasn’t fully healed. Seeing him again the other night had reopened some of the old wounds.

And now with the nightmare of Gigi running for mayor, Iker found all the stress in his life was all he had. 

So maybe it was just a drink and a burger with Sergio, but the way the secretary’s face lit up when he’d agreed, maybe he’d be getting lucky tonight.

 

* * * *

Carles was finishing the last of his beer while Cesc went to the bar to get another round for them. This place was on the beach, but was surprisingly down to earth for the scene that usually inhabited this area. There were tourists in the restaurant area, but the bar was populated with locals. He looked up and saw Raul’s personal assistant and campaign manager walk in with a delicious looking young man Carles had never seen before. Iker, who Carles had worked with on a few events the mayor had run in his drug fighting campaigns, nodded in his direction.

“Is that Iker?” Cesc asked as he set the fresh brews in front of them.

“Oh yeah,” Carles said and he saw Cesc gazing a little too long at the mayor’s assistant. “You want to join them?”

“What?” Cesc asked. “I mean...if you want to?”

“Sure, why not?” Carles said. Cesc could talk to Iker and Carles could get to know his friend.

Carles went and made the invitation and Iker gratefully agreed. In truth, he’d not had much to talk to Sergio about other than work, and when Sergio had said they had to stop talking about work, Iker was at a loss.

Sergio smiled at them both as the introductions were made. There was small talk and then Cesc and Iker got on to one of Cesc’s favorite topics: European football.

“I love Barcelona!” Cesc enthused. 

“Barca? No! Real Madrid,” Iker replied, enjoying the banter. 

As Carles and Sergio realized that something was developing, they started to feel like spare parts. Carles also realized that Sergio was in no way interested in him. Carles didn’t take it personally. After his conversation with Eliza earlier, he probably needed to leave it, anyway. “I think I better head home. I’ll get in early and start looking at reports, okay Cesc?”

“I can be in early too,” Cesc said quickly.

“Nah, you made the catch, I’ll look at the preliminaries and bring you up to speed when you get in,” Carles said. “Have a good evening, everyone.”

Cesc saw Iker look at his watch as Carles was leaving and felt his heart sink. No! He wanted to keep talking to him.

“We so should head over to the Copacabana,” Sergio said as he looked at his phone.

“The Copacabana?” Cesc said, looking unsure.

“Yeah, I’m not much for dance clubs, either,” Iker said quickly.

“Just for a little bit?” Sergio begged. “I really want to check out one of the waiter and I don’t want to go alone.”

“Oh, I get it now!” Iker said with a laugh. “The whole reason you asked me out was so you could hook up with some waiter!”

“No!” Sergio said even as his blush betrayed him. “I did want to hang out with you, too.”

“I feel so loved,” Iker joked to Cesc. “Come on, Sergio. You pay the cover charge and we’ll help you get laid.”

* * * *

Lola saw Cesc walk into the club for the second time that week.  He knew she owned this place.  Last time had been for work, but this time he was on the arm of Iker, Raul'ls assistant, and she was fairly certain that Iker didn't have much to do with the drug trade.  There was a third man with them who quickly peeled away and went to talk to Fernando.

There was attraction in Cesc's eyes and Lola turned a mother's eye on Iker.  The man was a professional in a position of power.  She might approve.

He doesn't care if you approve, a small, mean voice in Lola's head reminded her.

"Lola, if you stare at him, he's going to start to think you're stalking him."

Lola realized Petr was behind her at the bar and smiled.  "It's not stalking when he turns up at my place of business."

"He wouldn't keep turning up if he wasn't interested in forging some kind of relationship," Petr said.

Lola quashed the hope inside of her.  "Shouldn't you see if they want a drink?" Lola asked as Cesc and Iker had sidled up the far end of the bar.  It was a bit early yet and the place wasn't terribly crowded and the music hadn't been turned up.

"Why don't you ask them?"

Lola took a deep breath and headed down.  She owned this place.  She could ask Cesc what kind of drink he wanted without being seen to be pushy, right?

"Good evening, gentlemen," Lola said with a bright smile.

"Hello, Lola," Iker smiled at her and she could tell the man had had a few drinks already. Probably the only reason he was here out of his own free will. Iker was not the kind for a dance club.

"Hi," Cesc said.

"Can I get you two a table?" Lola asked, gesturing to the VIP section.

"VIP?" Iker asked, "Even without Raul I qualify as a VIP?"

"Of course you do," Lola said.  "Like Raul would come here anyway.  We usually get Guti, though."

Cesc watched Lola chat with Iker and kept waiting for her to say something to him, put pressure on him some how, but as he stayed silent, she let him, and engaged Iker.  He frowned.  "Cops never get to be VIPs."

"You just go to the wrong clubs," Lola said with a smile. "Come on.  Best seat in the house.  I'll send Fernando to look after you."

Lola showed them to the table and left them, sending Fernando as promised. Fernando flirted shamelessly and took their orders for drinks. 

"You sure you don't want champagne or something? Lola said it was on the house."

"Beer is fine," Cesc quickly said and Fernando left. 

Iker looked at him. "What?"

Cesc sighed. "Lola is my mother."

Iker's jaw dropped. "Lola is your mother?"

"I was raised by my grandparents, we..."

Iker saw Cesc struggle. "Lola's great. She helps Raul look after Guti sometimes. At least when he's here Raul knows at least he's not taking drugs."

"Lola runs an amazingly clean place," Cesc agreed. 

"Maybe you should talk to her," Iker joked. "If she'd let the druggies hang out here, you could come arrest them and impress your boss."

Cesc grinned. "That could work."

"Hey Mom, get me some coke heads," Iker laughed. 

Sergio slid into the booth beside Iker. "How did you two score this table?"

"Cesc knows people," Iker said vaguely. 

"Fernando is your waiter," Sergio said happily as he approached with two beers. 

"Hey sexy," Fernando flirted. "Please tell me you want more than just a beer?"

"How about sex on the beach?" Sergio said with a wink. 

Fernando licked his lips. "I get off at three."

"Yes you will."

Cesc and Iker shared a look and Cesc smiled. He really liked Iker. 

* * * *

"Hi."

Lola looked up and saw Isco leaning over her. Behind him was Cristiano who was watching Isco run his hand across Lola's ass with a frown. 

"Hi, hey Cristiano."  Lola knew immediately why he was here. Kiki had mentioned that Cristiano was attracted to Isco and Cristiano almost never came up the stairs. Awkward. 

"Lola," he said. "I see you've met Isco."

"Kiki brought him down last night," Lola said. "You guys want a table?"

"I'm not sure I can stay," Cristiano said. "CJ has soccer tomorrow morning."

"Oh, what time?  I keep promising him I'll come to a game," Lola said. 

"Ten thirty," Cristiano said. "I'll text you the location."

"You guys have a kid?" Isco asked, misreading the situation. 

"He does," Lola said. "I'm just the occasional baby sitter."

"I see," Isco said. 

"I'm gonna go," Cristiano said.  

"Don't go!" Isco said.  "Lola, tell him he should stay." Isco could not let Cristiano go back downstairs. Pepe was dropping off a package to leave in Isco's locker for later distribution. The rest of the staff would be cleared out soon, but Christiano had been known to stay quite late finishing up work. Pepe had told him he was coming by at one and it better be clear. Both Pepe and Scarlet were excessively stressed right now and Isco had seen the news and was fairly certain he knew what had happened to Andy and that the body shouldn't have been found. 

Isco put his arm through Cristiano's. "You promised to buy me a drink."

Lola saw Isco playing up to Cristiano and had no idea why, but she was rather amused. Isco was such a player. Never mind. He'd been and excellent lay. "Yeah, Cristiano, you need to buy him a drink.  Come on. Juan would love to help you out."

 

* * * *

"Why are Lola and Cristiano hanging out with that drug dealer?" Cesc asked as he squinted over at the next table.  He'd had several beers- five? six? - and he wasn't entirely thinking clearly at this point but yes, that was Isco.

"Who's a drug dealer?" Sergio asked. 

"See, I told you Lola could help you out!" Iker laughed and used the opportunity to touch Cesc's thigh again. 

Cesc giggled and didn’t bother to move his hand. “Shh, no. Look. Isco over there. He works for Scarlet, we think.”

“Isco?” Fernando said as he approached with yet another round of drinks. “He’s working downstairs at The Seven Room. God I hope he’s not a drug dealer. Lola took him home last night!”

“Lola!” Cesc squeaked. “My mother is sleeping with a drug dealer?”

“Your mother?” Fernando asked. “Lola is your mother!”

Cesc ignored this. “God, she’s a bigger slut than grandma said!”

Fernando frowned and sat down next to Cesc, shoving the tray aside and nearly toppling Iker’s drink in his lap. “Cesc! Lola’s not a slut. Oh my god. No. We were all elated when we’d heard she’d hooked up with Isco. Lord, she’s not gotten laid since we worked her and you probably don’t want to hear about your mother getting laid, shit I didn’t even know Lola had a kid. JUAN!” Fernando reached out to snag the passing waiter who was glaring at him for sitting with the clients. “Juan! This is Lola’s KID.”

Juan would have suspected Fernando was drunk, but he was always this hyper on a Friday night when the tips were excellent. He looked at Cesc. “I thought you were DEA.”

“Uh, yeah,” Cesc said. He hadn’t really expected this evening to turn into “This Is Your Life”.

“Shit, Cesc. If Isco is a drug dealer, you gotta tell Lola! And Cristiano!” Fernando grabbed Cesc by the arm and started to pull him out of the booth.

Iker grabbed his other side. “Maybe in the middle of the crowded club isn’t the best place for this kind of confrontation.”

“Oh, yeah,” Fernando said and seemed to remember he was a waiter. He began dishing out the drinks which were half spilled from his outbursts. “Sorry.”

“We’re probably about done, anyway,” Iker said as the exchange, which seemed to have shocked Cesc into silence, had sobered him up a bit. “Thanks Fernando.”

“You’re gonna go?” Fernando asked as he looked at Sergio desperately. Sure, he was the club’s resident slut, going home with about anything that showed an interested and finding more rich boyfriends to keep him than most people could count, but Sergio was...

“I can stay,” Sergio said quickly, sensing he finally had Fernando’s full attention.

Cesc scooted out as Iker dug into his wallet to leave a generous tip for Fernando, even though the drinks were free. “You want to get a cab? We can have them drop you off at your place, first?” Iker offered.

Cesc nodded dumbly, his eyes seeking out Lola who had left Isco flirting with Cristiano.

“You want to talk to her?” Iker asked.

“I should,” Cesc said. “She...she needs to know what we suspect about him.”

“Of course,” Iker said as he sensed that this was a big thing for Cesc. He wanted to hug him so badly. Let him know that Lola was great and she would be grateful to know. Grateful for Cesc to be the one to tell her.

They stopped at the bar. “Petr, is Lola around?” Iker asked.

Petr glanced at Cesc and gestured over his shoulder. “She just ducked into her office. Just down that corridor.”

Iker looked at Cesc who took a deep breath and headed where Petr indicated, down the corridor behind the bar. He headed that way, hearing the music fade as he turned a corner.

“Petr, do we need more change?” Lola asked, her back to Cesc.

Cesc cleared his throat and Lola turned to see him. “Oh, god. Cesc. I’m sorry. Did you...” she trailed of, looking at his face, flushed red with drink, his eyes wide and upset.

“Is everything okay? Are grandma and grandpa okay?” Lola asked in a moment of panic.

“They’re fine, fine,” Cesc said, her reaction waking him out of his trance. “I’m sorry...I just...”

“Sit,” Lola ordered and opened the mini fridge behind her desk and got out a bottle of water. She handed it to him and he took a grateful sip.

“Sorry,” he said again. “I’ve had a few too many.”

Lola sat on the edge of her desk and smiled down at him, her urge to be a parent strong. “We all do it. I saw you with Iker out there.”

Cesc looked up and gave her a small grin. “He’s really nice.”

“And kind of hot,” Lola teased.

“Yeah,” Cesc said as he blushed again. “Look, Lola. You know Isco?”

“Yes?” Lola said with a frown, wondering where he was going with this.

“He...well, I suppose I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but we suspect that he’s been dealing for Scarlet.” Cesc looked up to gauge her reaction.

Lola’s eyes were wide with shock. To tell the truth, she’d been a little surprised when the gorgeous twenty something young man had come on to her as strongly as he did. Lola was an attractive older woman, but let’s just say that the young men had stopped knocking on her door quite some time ago. She’d been heady with the attentions, but it made sense if he was working for Scarlet. Get Lola on side and then the back room of the Copacabana was open for business.

“Lola?”

“Sorry Cesc,” she said. “I suppose it makes sense.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I mean, we haven’t got any proof as yet, but he’s been heavily linked with a number of people and spends a lot of time at the clubs we know she’s dealing in.”

“No, it’s fine. And I wonder if he knows about you,” Lola said as she focused on her son again. “Knows you’re my son and thinks that if he can get me under his thumb, he’ll get you under control as well.”

Cesc’s eyes widened slightly as he hadn’t even considered that. “I wouldn’t put it past Scarlet.”

“What a bitch,” Lola said with a mirthless laugh. She and Cesc shared a smile and Lola’s heart leapt. “Anyway. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be a little smarter when it comes to pretty young boys.”

Cesc shrugged. “I suppose you should be allowed to go out with someone and not have to suspect they’re a drug dealer.”

“I own a club. Every other person is on drugs or dealing them,” Lola said. “One date in twenty years....”

Cesc’s shocked look made Lola’s heart ache. She wanted to spill it all out in that moment. There’s been no one since your father Cesc. No one at all. He was the love of my life and you were supposed to be the start of everything for us.

“I better go,” Cesc said before Lola could speak. “Iker is waiting.”

“Sure, yeah. Thanks again,” Lola said as he got up to leave. Stay in touch, she wanted to beg, but held back. “You getting a taxi home?”

“Yes,” Cesc said a little defensively, the moment between them lost.

“Have Petr call one,” Lola said quickly. “He can get you one by the time you get downstairs, okay?”

“Oh...thanks,” Cesc replied, ashamed at himself for snapping. He had some thinking he needed to do.

* * * *

 

Pepe walked into Scarlet’s house some time after 2 am. He had no idea. Isco had said the kitchen would be clear after midnight, but it wasn’t until one that the last of the staff left. At least the little shit had managed to keep Cristiano entertained. He’d seen them leave together at about 12:30.

To say Pepe was exhausted was the understatement of the decade. How could he have been so fucking stupid to just leave Andy there. But then again, the DEA had never come sniffing around their hangar before. How the hell had they known to be there that day. They must have been trailing Andy, that mother...fucking...

“All done?” Scarlet asked. She was sitting on the couch in the dark, a half empty wine glass and two open bottles in front of her.

“Done,” Pepe said as he sank down next to her. Scarlet poured him a glass while topping off her own.

He took it, gazing at her, wondering when the blame was going to come. She’d not said a word against him so far and he was waiting for the explosion.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I fucked up.”

“Yeah you did,” Scarlet said, he voice tired rather than angry. “But I fucked up worse. I shouldn’t have let Andy get out of hand the way he did. I need to keep a better eye on things. We’ve done so well, I was getting lazy.”

“The DEA have been so quiet lately,” Pepe said. 

“I’ve been sitting here all night waiting for them to bust down my door,” Scarlet said as she drank. “It feels like this is over.”

“It’s not over,” Pepe said. “Not by a long shot. Maybe you need to disappear for a bit. I can handle things, keep an eye on Isco. Once we distribute what we just brought back, maybe we all go underground for a little while. Let the election blow over and then come back.”

“If we leave a gap in the market, someone else will step in.”

Pepe sighed. “Jose.”

“Jose.”

* * * * 

Lola tried not to think about Juan telling her that Cristiano had left with Isco the night before as she pulled up to the sunny park where dozens of little kids in brightly colored t-shirts milled around. Parents were setting up chairs and staring at their cell phones. Cristiano could do whatever he liked, but honestly, how had Lola had such poor judgment about Isco?

He was pretty and you wanted to get laid, Lola reminded herself. And it had been fun. 

She supposed what really bothered her was that Isco hadn’t really been interested in her. Sheesh, at least she’d like to pretend she could still pull a hot twenty year old guy.

She found Cristiano stood by two chairs, and for a moment she had the awful thought that Isco had come with him.

“I knew you’d forget a chair,” Cristiano said as he gestured to the spare where CJ’s minion doll, Dave was sitting. “My mother couldn’t make it.”

“She alright?” Lola asked as she picked up Dave and had a seat.

“Yeah, had to go help my sister out,” he said as he put his phone away and sat next to her. 

CJ, in a yellow shirt, came running up. “Look, Lola! I’m seven, like Daddy’s restaurant!” He turned around so Lola could see the seven on his back.

“Wow,” Lola said, duly impressed. 

“I’m going to score today,” CJ said as he strutted about with a ball at his feet. The coach blew the whistle and CJ scampered over to the rest of the team who all wore   
the blindingly yellow shirts.

“Oh, I hope he does,” Lola said as she realized she was hugging the toy. She set it next to her on the chair. He smiled up at her happily. 

The game was slow and the players weren’t very good. CJ was clearly one of the best, however, and he got a goal before half time.

“Not a bad little player there,” Lola noted and Cristiano beamed with pride.

“I played in school,” Cristiano demurred. “He appears to have inherited a little bit of that.”

Lola watched him glow with fatherly pride. She wondered if and when she was going to be able to bring up about Isco. She really didn’t want to get into the fact that he went home with the same guy she went home with the night before, but Lola felt he ought to know that the DEA thought one of his employees was involved with drug dealers.

CJ got taken out of the game in the second half when the team was up by three goals so that some of the other kids could get a chance to play and Lola saw her opening.

“Cris, I need to talk with you about Isco.”

Cristiano turned to look at her. “What about him?”

Lola saw his defenses go up at the mention. “Look, Cesc stopped by my office last night. He saw me talking with him and wanted to let me know that they’ve got him under surveillance as a possible associate of Scarlet’s.”

Cristiano surveyed her. She found his face impossible to read. “So, what is this, jealousy?”

“Do what?” Lola asked, confused.

“You’re jealous he was hitting on me last night after he was all over you the night before?”

“What?” Lola asked, shocked at the accusation.

“Lola, Isco is a damn good employee. He’s only been with us for a couple of days and yes, he’s a terrible flirt, but really, Lola. A drug dealer?”

“Cesc said!” Lola blurted out. “I mean...he was worried about me being involved with him and I told him it was a stupid one night stand. I just thought you should know that your employee was under investigation.”

“Fine,” Cristiano said as he turned back to the field. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

Lola fell silent, looking down at Dave, the minion, who smiled up at her. She picked him up and held him. Was she jealous?

After the match, CJ came barreling over to them. “Did you SEE Lola?”

“I did, buddy,” Lola said as she handed the toy over to the boy to receive a sweaty hug. “Dave watched, too.”

CJ gave her a grin and hugged his dad. “Daddy, coach says he needs to talk to parents.”

“You stay will Lola for a minute,” Cristiano said he headed across the field.

CJ handed Dave back to Lola so he could have a slurp from his water bottle. Lola held Dave under her arm as she brushed the sweaty curls off of his forehead. She thought about Cesc for a moment, who’d played soccer as a kid. She’d seen pictures of him in his little kit, but she’d never had a chance to see him play. Some times she felt like getting to see CJ grow up was a blessing due to the chance she’d lost with her own son. If Cesc was half this precious, she’d missed so much.

“Are you sad, Lola?” CJ asked as he looked up at her.

She gave him a smile. “Nah. But I do think we need to get ice cream.”

“SOUTH BEACH TREATS!” CJ yelled happily as he started to dance with Lola who laughed out loud.

Cristiano stood with the other parents, not really hearing the information about the change in practice as he watched CJ dance around and Lola laughing. 

 

* * * *

Cesc had a tired but happy look on his face as he walked into the office to find Carles behind his desk, pouring over some print outs. Everything came electronically these days, but Carles, like many other people, needed a hard copy to really be able to process things.

“Good night?” Carles asked with a smile as Cesc set down his customary bag of doughnuts.

“Yeah,” Cesc said. Iker and he had shared a cab, going to their separate homes, but he had a phone number and a promise to call soon. Perfect evening, in his opinion. “Oh, Isco is working at The Seven Room.”

Carles paused with a doughnut half way to his mouth. “Isco? Scarlet’s Isco?”

“Yep,” Cesc said. “And he is working his way in with the staff quite nicely. We better keep a sharp eye out there. You know Lola and Cristiano will do everything they can to help us out there.”

Now with a mouthful of doughnut, nodded. He shoved a report toward Cesc who licked his fingers and collected it up. “Two gunshot wounds, head and chest, 35 millimeter hand gun...close range...” he muttered to himself. “Time of death...”

“Leo is going over the security tapes of the hangar, but apparently the ones on that hangar haven’t been working for months. Out team looked at it and it doesn’t appear to be tampered with, it just doesn’t work.”

“Nice,” Cesc sighed, though he knew that the dealers were getting smarter about those things. Technology like that in less than sensitive areas often fell into disrepair, and it wouldn’t have been hard to switch a working camera out with one that didn’t and make it look like it just hadn’t been repaired. Technology could do amazing things, but the cost of upkeep was well past the average small corporation’s ability to keep up with. Besides- why did you need security tape of a small plane used to make sight seeing trips?

“We’re hoping to tag a license plate coming or going, but nothing so far,” Carles said.

“Were are we on S. Kop?” Cesc asked.

“Leo made a link to Scarlet through a bank account.”

“Enough to go and question her about it?”

“Eliza thinks we should. Just make some polite enquires if she knows anything about the murder or the drug traces we found on her plane.”

“Ugh, why can we arrest her,” Cesc said as he got out of his chair. “Why does she have to have drugs in her hands or an I Sell Drugs sign in her front garden?”

Carles chuckled. “Welcome to the DEA. We spend our whole lives chasing after people like Scarlet. The street dealers are easy, but they’re a dime a dozen.”

“We need to cut the head off the snake,” Cesc agreed. “If we can get Scarlet, stop the imports, we won’t have to worry about the street guys.”

“No product, no problem,” Carles said as he too got up.

Eliza peered in. “Guys, just had word from border control, Jose’s in town.”

“Fuck,” Carles sighed.

* * * *

Kiki watched Isco charm the customers of the Saturday lunch crowd. They got a lot of people out for special occasions as the lunch was cheaper. The suburbans loved the charm of the handsome man who made a fuss over everyone. He was really gifted at customer service.

“Did you hear?” asked David Silva, one of the waiters.

“Did I hear what?” Kiki asked, as she wiped down the bar pointlessly. There wasn’t much bar business at 2 on a Saturday.

“Isco,” David said as he came behind the bar, ostensibly to look for cocktail napkins. “Apparently Cesc told Lola last night that Isco is linked to drug dealers. Juan texted me.”

Kiki took a moment to marvel at the gossip vine through this building. “Damn. No wonder he charmed Lola. He wanted to run things through her club.”

“He went home with Cristiano last night!” David gleefully reported.

“No,” Kiki said. “Cristiano drove Isco home because he lost his bus pass. Nothing happened. Cristiano knew Isco went home with Lola the other day.”

“But I thought Cristiano was into Isco.”

“Oh, I think he is. And he’s pissed off that Lola got him first, but he knows better than to fuck the staff,” Kiki said.

David giggled at her language. “He does need to get laid.”

“Don’t we all,” Kiki gave David a wink as she saw Cristiano enter the restaurant and shuffled David on his way.

Cristiano crossed over to Kiki who handed him the post which had come earlier. “Everything running alright?” Kiki was left in charge on a Saturday until Cristiano arrived.

“Smooth sailing. Isco is doing a really good job,” Kiki fished.

“He’s very good,” Cristiano said absently. “Can you send me an orange juice and a turkey sandwich?”

“Sure,” Kiki said, disappointed to see him head off to his office without a look back in her direction.

* * * *

“So,” Jenny began as she ran her toes up the back of Gigi’s calf in the secluded booth they sat in at The Seven Room, enjoying a late lunch after Gigi’s very successful political rally that morning. He had a fundraiser that evening. “What is our next plan of attack against Raul?”

“I think we need to let him stew for a bit,” Gigi said, not objecting to Jenny’s advances, but thinking perhaps she needed to keep a reign on it while they were out. He had contemplated making things official with her. Jenny was a very popular public figure, and he would win a lot of female backing if they thought he was with her. But then again, it could easily be used against him, if people thought politics and media were getting too cozy. For the moment, he would use her for what she could do for him behind the scenes. And in bed.

“True,” Jenny agreed and her foot retreated as Gigi gave her a look. She couldn’t help it. The man was sexy as hell. “He’s expecting us to remain on the offensive. We lull him into a sense of security this week, and you attack later once he’s relaxed.”

“You are rather blood-thirsty, dear.” Gigi was smiling at her. The woman had drive.

“I’m hoping we ride this mayor thing into a run for governor in two years.”

“And then the White House?”

“Exactly,” Jenny said.

The waiter brought them drinks and took their order. Gigi loved that Jenny actually ate food. She was in good shape, but didn’t worry about the calories in a meal as much as so many women did.

“So, I think we both know where Raul’s real weakness lies.”

“The fact that he’s gay?” Gigi asked, taking a slight bit of offense at the idea.

“No,” Jenny shook her head. “This is Miami. Sure, he doesn’t advertise it, but we’d be insane to attack him for that in this political climate. No, what we really need to do is go after Guti.”

Gigi frowned but he was listening. “He keeps Guti in the background.”

“I know,” Jenny said. “And it’s not because Raul doesn’t want people to know he’s gay. It’s because Guti likes to party.”

“He’s not into drugs, is he?” Gigi asked, alarmed.

“Not that I know of. But say he’s out one evening. Some good looking young man comes on to him, invites him to a house party. A house party that happens to be at Scarlet’s place. Oh dear, someone called the police...”

A grin began to form on Gigi’s face. “You, my dear, need to get out of journalism and be my campaign manager.”

Jenny winked. “Sorry, love, this face is too pretty to leave behind the scenes.”

* * * *

Scarlet was in bed when Carles and Cesc arrived, sleeping off the hangover she had considering all the wine she’d drunk.

“Scarlet, there’s some agents to see you,” Danny said as he stuck his head into her bedroom.

With a groan, Scarlet appeared from under the duvet. Pepe was snoring softly next to her. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

Danny disappeared and Scarlet elbowed Pepe. “Find me Simon.”

Pepe opened an eye. “He’s supposed to be in Boca Raton this afternoon.”

“Well yes I know where he’s supposed to be. Fucking find him,” Scarlet snapped, her head pounding.

Pepe knew better than to argue when she was in a mood like this and slipped out of the bed, finding his pants and leaving her to it.

Scarlet didn’t even glance at his bare ass as she dragged herself to the bedroom. Fuck mother fuck why did she open that third bottle of wine? She glanced at herself in the mirror and realized she looked exactly like a hung over drug dealer. Lovely.

Ten minutes, and a load of beauty products later, Scarlet was presentable enough to go downstairs.

Sitting on her sofa were Carles and Cesc. She knew who they were. She made it her business to know all of the DEA agents in the city.

They rose when she entered the room. “So sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting. Lazy Saturday and all.”

“No problem,” Carles said as he offered a hand. “My name is Carles Puyol and this is my partner, Cesc Fabregas. We’re sorry to interrupt your Saturday, but we have a few questions we need to ask you.”

“What is this about?” Scarlet asked, a picture of innocence.

“Ma’am,” Cesc said and earned a strike in Scarlet’s book, “are you aware that there was a murder yesterday in the hangar where you keep your plane?”

“Yes,” Scarlet said. “The air park called me. Tragic. I knew him. Andy was an acquaintance.” The closer to the truth your lies were, the less they could suspect. “The plane isn’t actually mine. Well, it is, but it’s an investment in a business which a friend of mine runs. Pepe Reina?”

Carles nodded as Cesc scribbled the name which they already knew on his note pad. “I see. How well did you know Mr. Carroll?”

“Not very well, to be honest,” Scarlet said. “I had talked with him about some business ideas, but nothing ever came of it.”

“Do you have any idea why he might have been in that air plane hangar?” Carles continued.

“Not a single one,” Scarlet said. “Pepe had just returned from a trip to Bolivia. He takes tourists down there for holidays. He and I met for brunch yesterday after he returned, at about 10 am.” 

Cesc wrote this down. False alibi for Pepe, he thought. “Where did you have brunch?”

“At the Cafe Anglais in South Beach,” Scarlet said without missing a beat. She had, as a matter of fact. Had a credit card receipt to prove it. And a waiter who worked for her to swear Pepe was with her.

“When did you hear about the murder?”

“Ah,” Scarlet thought. “Pepe got a call first. Some time around eleven? We were just finishing brunch. Then I got the call right after.”

Carles nodded.

“Such a horrible thing. Have you got any suspects?” Scarlet asked bluntly. She looked at them both with such guileless interest that Cesc actually believed she might not have had anything to do with it.

“Not at the moment,” Carles said. “We may need to ask you more questions later.”

“Of course,” Scarlet said, grateful that they were getting up to leave. She was only going to be able to keep her heaving stomach contained for so much longer before she had to go running to the bathroom.

Or puke on their cheap shoes.

Cesc looked like he had more questions to ask, but Carles was already on his feet so he followed suit. No! They needed to find out more about her business. About South Beach Treats!

As they walked to their car, Cesc hissed. “Why did we leave?”

“Because,” Carles said as he opened the car door. “She thinks we have nothing on her and she’s going to relax. Now we drive around the corner and wait to see where she heads out now. Bet you dinner tonight that she takes us to someone connected with the murder.”

 

* * * *

Eliza picked up the phone Monday morning. “Eliza, this is Pep Guardiola.”

“Good morning,” Eliza said. Shit, the national head of the DEA. “What can I do for you?”

“Looks like you’ve been busy down there.”

“Got some great leads on one of the major players here in town. Two of my best agents are putting together some solid evidence,” Eliza said. Everyone down here is doing their jobs, sir.

“Yes, I’ve seen the reports. Excellent work, but it’s not Scarlet I called to speak with you about.”

“Sir?” Eliza asked, starting to feel a little nervous. Crap, he’d read Cesc’s report about the other night. He was calling to demand to know why she hadn’t taken more action and suspended him.

“You got the memo Saturday about Jose Mourinho was in town?” Pep asked.

Of course she had, Eliza thought with a frown. Her office had been the one who’d sent it. “Yes, sir. I’ve made my agents aware as well, but as yet, we’ve not had any further reports on him.” As a matter of fact, since Jose passed through immigration at the Miami-Dade Airport, no one had so much as seen him drive through a McDonalds. They assumed he was staying with a friend as no hotel had flagged up through any of their systems.

“One of our agents in New York thinks she’s discovered what he’s doing in town.”

“We had assumed he was here to see what was going on with Scarlet to see if there was room to move in on her territory after Andy’s death.”

“Yes, but there’s more.”

So just spit it out already, Eliza wanted to say, but refrained.

"We have reason to believe he's going to attempt to over throw Scarlet's hold on Miami."

Eliza raised an eyebrow. "He thinks her position is weak enough to merit that?"

"Apparently so," Pep said. "So we're sending our agents down to assist your agents working on this case."

You're doing what? Eliza wanted to retort, but she bit her lip. Pep was her boss and telling him off for his lack of respect for her and her agents wasn't exactly the best start to a Monday. "Of course."

"Agent Hope Solo will be taking point on this, and her partner Gerard Pique will be coming along as well."

"Fantastic."

* * * *

Scarlet listened to Gigi as he explained the plan he and Jenny had concocted. In truth, it really wasn't a bad one in terms of the election, but not the greatest from her front.

"You do realized that the DEA is breathing down my neck at the moment, right?" Scarlet said as she regarded Gigi across the table. They were having lunch at a cafe outside of Miami.

Gigi waved a hand. "If they had anything to pin on you about Carroll they'd have arrested you by now."

Scarlet glared. "You want to say that a little louder? I don't think the couple vacationing from Wisconsin heard you."

Gigi sighed. "Look, I get it, but this is why we need to take Raul down. Get me in office and I can make sure that the DEA is off your back."

"You'd better," Scarlet said. She'd gotten a call from Simon on her way out that morning saying that Jose was staying in Coral Gables. Jose had the whole of the eastern seaboard, why the hell was he sniffing around Miami?

"Look, we just need someone to seduce Guti. Get him over to your house, drunken night, we see him stumbling out in the AM where we just so happen to have some reporters there to get pictures, he's attached to you, but nothing illegal happens on your property, there's nothing to go on."

"Or Raul gets so pissed off that he sends cops to raid my house!" Scarlet said.

"So it's a possibility," Gigi shrugged. "You know it could happen so you make sure everything is clean by morning. Cops come in, they get nothing. In outrage, you make a statement about how Raul's administration is bullying the citizens of Miami..."

Scarlet watched him spin the tale, and had to admit, it wasn't a bad plan. She did need to get Gigi elected and the poll numbers currently showed him lagging considerably behind the incumbent.

"Alright," she agreed. "I've got just the person in mind."

* * * *

Guti opened the email from The Seven Room. This was a bit odd, he thought as he scanned it. "Hey, Raul. We won a free dinner Tuesday night a The Seven Room."

"We did what?" Raul asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, towel draped loosely around his hips.

"I dunno, I got this email. Says we got free dinner tomorrow night," Guti said as he eyed Raul's near naked state. 

"Tomorrow night I have a dinner with the conservative businessmen's association."

Guti made a face. Exactly the kind of people he was not welcome around. "But it's free dinner at The Seven Room."

"I'll take you this weekend," Raul said. "Or take Michel Salgado with you." Michel was an old friend of Guti's who used to work with him.

"I could," Guti agreed. Once again Raul's job came before Guti. "I don't know why you even kiss the asses of those people. They don't respect us or the way we live."

"I know," Raul said as he came over to kiss his cheek. "But we need their support so we can stay in office and fight for what's right, okay?"

Guti let Raul cuddle him and had half a wish that Raul wouldn't get re-elected. Then maybe Raul would have time for him and they wouldn't have to live in the shadows any more.

* * * *

"Reservation for nine o'clock," Isco said with the phone cradled under his chin as he checked the computer. "And I'll be sure his glass is full and he makes it upstairs after."

"You're such a doll, Isco," Scarlet purred. "If you can get him to my house, we'll take care of the rest."

"Will do," Isco said brightly even as he wondered how the hell he was going to leave the Copacabana with Guti with Lola already glaring at him and Cristiano cooled off after Friday night. He admitted that he hadn't played that very well. He never should have taken Cristiano upstairs that night, especially after waking up in Lola's bed that morning.

He grinned to himself. He couldn't help himself some times. Lola and Cristiano were both gorgeous, and getting powerful people under control was so easy some times. He wondered if maybe he could get Guti to go straight to Scarlet's and by-pass upstairs. Cristiano was off Tuesdays and he'd picked that night specifically because they knew Raul had a fund raiser Guti wouldn't be going to.

"Don't think so hard," Kiki advised as she walked past with a pile of bar invoices. "It'll furrow that lovely brow of yours and you'll be on the botox before you're thirty."

Isco laughed. "We can't have that, now can we?"

"You're nothing without your good looks," Kiki winked at him as she made her way to Cristiano's office. The damn distributor was raising the prices of the whiskey again. They claimed it was taxes but honestly, the taxes did not go up ten percent. 

"We need to find a new liquor distributor," Kiki said as she knocked on Cristiano's door. 

With a start, she realized that CJ was sat behind Cristiano's desk.

"What's liquor?" CJ asked as he shuffled a pile of coloring pages on the desk.

"Something you'll find out about when you're older. Where's your daddy?"

"Kitchen," CJ said. "Dave wanted a snack."

Kiki glanced at the doll which reclined on the keyboard to Cristiano's laptop. "Oh yeah? What's Dave in the mood for?"

"He wants crackers and cheese," CJ replied with a nod.

"Good choice, Dave," Kiki agreed. "Can you tell your daddy to stop by and see me after he feeds Dave?"

CJ picked up a marker and made a scribble on one of the pages before him. "I will."

"Thank you," Kiki said with a smile as she walked out. Adorable.

* * * *

Cesc was sat at his desk Tuesday morning when two tall, dark, and gorgeous brunettes walked into the office. His jaw actually fell open.

The pair, one male, one female, walked toward Eliza's office and were quickly ushered in.

"You're drooling, Fabregas," commented Carles as he stuck his head out of his office, also having seen the pair.

Cesc shot him a glare. "Are those the New York agents?"

"I think so," Carles said as he came to perch on the edge of Cesc's desk. "At least they'll be pretty to look at."

Cesc nodded. Both he and Carles had been annoyed when Eliza had told them that the agents were joining them. They'd made a good dent in their case against Scarlet. Sami Khedira had called just that morning to tell them that they were going to bring Pepe Reina in for questioning. It seemed that Scarlet's right hand man was the most likely candidate for having shot Andy, and they were going to see if they could get the man to incriminate himself.

"Why can't they keep their drug dealers up in New York?" Carles wondered as he went to make himself another cup of coffee.

"I know," Cesc said. "We have ours, they have theirs, just keep everyone in your own back yards."

"Maybe they should get one of those shock collars on Jose, you know, like they do to keep dogs in yards."

Cesc snorted. "Or get tags on them. If lost, please return."

Carles chuckled. "I suppose it would help to have the drug dealers spayed and neutered."

Cesc guffawed at the ridiculous statement. "Help control the pet population," he quoted the old game show host, Bob Barker, "have your drug dealer spayed or neutered."

Both agents were laughing out loud when Eliza emerged from her office, earning them stares of death from her. "Carles, Cesc, can you join me for a moment, please?"

* * * *

Pepe entered the police department behind Scarlet's attorney, a surprisingly respectable woman called Abby Wambach. Abby was a criminal defense attorney and partner at the biggest firm in Florida. She'd yet to lose a case.

"I have Mr. Pepe Reina here to speak with a detective Khedira?" Abby told the officer at the desk, a wide eyed kid who looked fearfully at the Amazonian goddess before him.

"Y-y-y-es ma'am," he stuttered and picked up the phone with a trembling hand.

Pepe hid his amusement. Khedira wouldn't scare quite so easily, but he knew with Abby on his side, unless they literally had a smoking gun, they'd be here about half an hour and Abby would have Sami contemplating a career change.

Abby looked at her phone and fired off three emails while they waited. Abby hadn't even asked Pepe any questions about his guilt or not. She considered such facts irrelevant. She was here to prove the cops didn't have enough to pin anything on him.

Sami appeared, looking unfazed to see Abby. He addressed Pepe. "Mr. Reina, if you'd like to come with me?"

"Of course," Pepe said, and gallantly allowed Abby to go in front of him. She was already annoyed that Sami had ignored her. Oh this was going to be fun.  
Sami showed them to an interrogation room, complete with the two way mirror and more than likely Fabregas and Puyol on the other side. Pepe gave them a wink.

Carles tried not to laugh. Cesc grumbled. 

“That’s a cheeky bastard,” laughed Hope from behind them. Gerard was on his phone, texting like he had been since arriving. Cesc did like the gorgeous agent. She had been frank with them from the start, saying that they weren’t here to take over the investigation, but they had been tracking Jose for months and they were hoping in his haste to take over where Scarlet had slipped, he might make an mistake. 

However, Cesc did not like looking like an idiot in front of her. She was six inches taller than him and made him feel like a shortie.

“His attorney is...”

“Abby Wambach,” Hope interrupted him. “I know her.”

“How do you know her?” Cesc blurted out. Honestly, was she going to be one step ahead of them all day.

“We went to college together. We both played soccer and were in the same major: criminal justice. She went for the money at Harvard Law.” There was a trace of bitterness in her voice. “We’re getting nothing out of him.”

“We might,” Carles felt the need to stick up for Sami. “Khedira is a good detective.”

Hope glanced at her partner. “Gerard, for fuck’s sake, get off that phone. She’s not calling or texting or ever talking to you again.”

Gerard shot her a look. “We’re just having a break.”

“She moved back to Columbia,” Hope helpfully pointed out.

Carles could see Gerard’s pain and his heart went out to him. He knew what it was like to have your heart ripped out.

On the other side of the glass, Sami had begun asking questions actually relevant to the case at hand. “Thank you for coming in, Mr. Reina.”

“We can dispense with the pleasantries, detective,” Abby cut him off. “We’re here because you think my client killed someone. We’re here to prove he didn’t and get one with our day. What evidence do you have?”

Sami used all of the power within him to not snap back at the rudeness. “We know for a fact that Mr. Reina landed the plane he runs on behalf of a Ms. Scarlet...”

“It’s my business,” Pepe said. “She is a silent partner.”

Sami nodded. “Alright, so you landed the plane you run for your business along with on Simon Gilson at about seven am the morning of the murder. Is this correct.”

“I believe so,” Pepe said. Seven fifteen, but there was no need to be picky about it.

“We have on video Mr. Gilson leaving by car at about 8 am, but you did not leave until nearly 9, is that correct?”

“Probably. He wanted to get home and I had some paperwork to take care of,” Pepe said. “He’s my back up pilot and he’d flown a lot of the overnight leg of the journey.”

“Did you see Mr. Carroll at any time that morning?” Sami asked as he looked up from his papers to star Pepe in the eye.

The man didn’t even bat an eyelash. “I did not.”

“Do you have any idea why Mr. Carroll would have been in your airplane hangar?”

“I do not.”

“How well did you know, Mr. Carroll?” Sami asked.

Pepe shrugged. “I’d seen him around. I know Scarlet knew him fairly well. He and I didn’t much travel in the same social circles.”

“Do you have any idea why someone might want to kill Mr. Carroll?”

Abby decided that was enough. “Do you have any more than pointless questions, Mr. Khedira? Because as far as I can tell, about every other person who met Mr. Carroll might liked to have killed him. He was kind of an asshole.”

Sami’s grip on his pen tightened. “If you don’t mind, Ms. Wambach, I do have a couple more questions.”

Abby looked at her watch. “Fine.”

“Mr. Reina, were you aware that Mr. Carroll had a record of arrests for dealing drugs?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any idea if he was still dealing drugs?”

“Are you accusing my client of drug dealing as well as murder?” Abby snapped.

“I am asking if you client was aware that a man who had a known history is dealing drugs might still have been involved in drugs. Which is entirely relevant as your client had just returned from a trip to South America.”

“Now you’re accusing my client of drug smuggling,” Abby said as she stood up. “I think we’re done here. Unless you want to have my client formally charged, we’re done.”

“If your client has nothing to hide...” Sami tried to reason with the woman, but there was nothing to be done.

“My client has nothing to say,” Abby said. “If you want to ask him more questions, you need to charge him.”

Sami sat down with a sigh as Abby ushered Pepe out. No they had nothing to charge him with. They had no weapon, Pepe likely left the crime scene before Andy arrived, and anything they might even try to charge him with would slide right off.

“I told you so,” Hope shrugged.

 

* * * *

Hope left the observation room about the same time Abby and Pepe did. She cut across the break room and was waiting in the lobby when they appeared.

Abby spotted her right away and sent Pepe on without her.

"You bitch," Abby said with a grin. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Serving and protecting the fine people of Miami," Hope said as she embraced her old friend. "Just following up on a few things."

They nodded to each other, the air full of all of the things which both of them knew but neither could admit. Abby knew Jose was in town as her firm had done work for him in the past. Hope knew that Pepe was full of shit about the Carroll murder and they both knew he was guilty as hell, but despite the fact that Carroll's body hadn't been meant to be found, Scarlet was too good at what she did to have left a trail that would hold up in court.

"If you get a chance while you're in town, give me a call," Abby said. 

"Will do," Hope said as Abby turned to leave. 

Cesc was in the break room when Hope came back through. "I think we're going to check in with Leo, our computer geek- he says he think he's found a trail back to Bolivia we might look into." 

"Great," Hope agreed and went to find Gerard as Carles appeared.

Closing the door behind him, he looked at Cesc.

"Now why is the agent who just turned up on our doorstep to get in the middle of our investigation best friends with the attorney who is making it impossible for us to get any information on our murder suspect?"

"I wondered that too," Cesc replied.

* * * *

Scarlet was relieved that at least Pepe had been released without charges filed. There was a reason she kept that law firm on on ten grand a month retainer. 

There were people buzzing around her house, getting ready for the party that evening. She had a headache and she didn't want to deal with any of this right now.

Danny came breezing onto the patio. "Scarlet, you're late for your appointment."

"What appointment?" Scarlet asked, dread forming inside her. Shit, some other fuck up top deal with?

"At the spa. You've been stressed so I booked you in for a relaxation massage. I sent a reminder to your phone if you would bother to check your calendar," Danny said.

"Massage?" Scarlet asked and nearly gave out a moan of pleasure.

"Yes. Shoo. I've got the house in hand. Pepe is taking a nap and Simon is taking care of the business this morning. You don't need to do anything but relax. Oh, and hair at five so you look fabulous for the party."

Scarlet grinned. "Danny, what ever I'm paying you, double it."

* * * *

When Hope and Gerard had offered to take Cesc and Carles out to dinner to compare notes on Jose and Scarlet, Cesc had honestly expected to get a meal at the Denny's down the road from the office. When Hope told them a friend had recommended The Seven Room, Cesc was shocked.

"We'll put it on the company card," Hope had said as she gave Cesc the time of the reservation.

"We have to buy our own coffee," Cesc grumbled as he headed home to get changed. 

As he drove, his phone rang. It was Iker. A thrill of excitement went through him. He'd not had a chance to see Iker since their sort of date the week before, but they had talked and texted quite a bit.

"Hello!" Cesc said brightly as he answered.

"Hi Cesc, how are you?" Iker said.

"Great, how are you?"

"Free tonight. Tell me you are as well?"

"No," Cesc groaned with a sigh. "I have a work dinner. Some out of town agents are taking us to The Seven Room."

"Damn," Iker said. "You have moved up in the world. Shame. Raul has a dinner, but Sergio is going to organize it and said I could have the night off."

"Dammit," Cesc said. "Hey, our dinner is at 8. You want to meet me upstairs for a drink after?"

"Sure, I can do that," Iker said. He couldn't wait to see Cesc again. As he hung up the phone, he turned off his computer and got up from his desk. The campaign was going to be getting into high gear soon and he knew his free time would become precious. But he had to keep seeing Cesc. He'd not met anyone this amazing since...

Pepe.

Iker tried to shove the thought away from his mind, but Pepe stayed put. He'd heard through a source in the police department that Pepe had been called in for questioning over the murder of that drug dealer the week before. Iker hated to think that Pepe might have anything to do with that. 

When he and Pepe had been together, Iker had no idea that Pepe might be involved in illegal things. Okay, fine, Pepe had a lot of money despite running a sight seeing business that never really seemed to have any patrons. And the way Pepe would get late night phone calls that he never could tell Iker anything about. Toward the end, Pepe had started to get agitated, and Iker had pressed him for information about what was going on, which probably led to Pepe's abandonment of him.

Had he wanted to tell Iker? Wasn't sure he could trust Iker?

Was ashamed of what he did?

The possibilities swirled around in his head.

Cesc, he told his mind. Cesc is gorgeous and funny and a cop. He was not someone who would abandon him on an island and never return your calls.

"Iker, where is the schedule for tonight," Sergio asked as he stuck his head in Iker's office.

"I emailed it to you this morning," Iker said.

"Ah," Sergio nodded. "Do I need to wear a tie?" 

"Yes," Iker said as he looked at Sergio's shiny silk shirt. He and Raul had decided to step up Sergio's involvement as the election got closer. They were going to be moving into an all hands on deck situation. Tonight was Sergio's chance to show he could handle this kind of event so that when things got hectic, they knew they could count on him.

"Actually," Iker mused as Sergio pulled a shiny silver tie out of his man bag. "We should switch shirts. You're dressed for a club and I'm dressed for a political dinner."

"You're going to a club?" Sergio asked with a twinge of jealousy. "Please tell me you're not going to the Copacabana or I will kill myself."

"I'll give Fernando your love?" Iker offered.

"Oh, you asshole," Sergio groaned as he unbuttoned his shirt. 

"How is the lovely Fernando."

"Oh my god, Iker," Sergio sighed. "He's incredible. He's come over at like 3 sam every night this week. I am getting no sleep. He wakes me up for sex when he shows up, and then I have to leave for work at seven. I went to bed at eight last night just so I could get enough sleep."

Iker laughed. "You poor soul."

"It's incredible," Sergio said happily. "Damn he's a good lay."

"And that's more information than I need!" Iker laughed as he handed over his shirt and tie. His blue oxford and sensible taupe tie was much more suited to a political event. He'd wear Sergio's shirt home and change before going out.

"You look hot in that," Sergio said off-handedly as Iker buttoned up the deep red silk.

"You think?" Iker asked as he looked down at the shirt which pulled a little tightly around his broad chest.

"Cesc will so sleep with you," Sergio agreed as he fixed the collar.

Iker turned approximately the same shade as the shirt.

* * * *

Kiki saw Guti arrive and wondered why he was with someone other than Raul. When a bottle of champagne was ordered to be sent over, free of charge, she really started to get suspicious.

"Who's comping them champagne," Kiki asked David as he came by for cocktails.

"Who? Guti?" David asked. Everyone knew Raul's lover.

"Yeah. Since when do we comp anything?"

David shrugged. "Isco told me to bring it."

Kiki didn't like it, but Isco rarely came over to the bar and she got busy. She didn't think about it again until the bar tab came through. Over a hundred dollars worth of free drinks? Cristiano had Tuesdays off, but he was far, far too well organized to have not told her something like this. Kiki carried a copy of the receipt up to the front where Isco was greeting a party of four.

"Not just now," Isco muttered as he charmed the ladies and led them to a table.

Across the restaurant, Cesc had an eye on Guti who was getting progressively drunker.

"Who is that?" Hope asked as she realized she didn't really have the attention of Cesc. Carles and Gerard had fallen into a conversation about basketball, a mutual interest of theirs. Hope didn't much care about basketball and Cesc was distracted.

"Guti," Cesc said as he peeled his eyes away. Should he tell Iker? "He's the boyfriend of the mayor."

"Ooh," Hope said as she watched the blond flirt shamefully with the maitre'd. "I take it that's not the mayor he's with."

"No," Cesc said. "The mayor doesn't go out with him much because of his political standing."

"Are we still in that backward state where gay is okay, but just as long as you don't talk about it?" Hope asked, annoyed.

"Indeed," Cesc said. 

"Crap, he just grabbed that waiter's ass!" Hope said with glee as she watched him grope the man.

"That's Isco!" Cesc squeaked as he turned more fully to see the exchange.

"Isco?" Carles turned as well. "Isco, minion of Scarlet?"

"You didn't notice him when we sat down?" Cesc asked and Carles ignored the question. He might have been checking out Gerard. The New York agent was gorgeous. Just exactly his type.

Guti caught Hope's eye and winked, and the table collectively focused on their plates.

Cesc cleared his throat. "I've got to call Iker. This is not good. What is Guti doing?"

"It looks like he's headed upstairs," Carles reported as the slightly swaying man passed behind their table in his line of sight.

Cesc sent a text to Iker: SOS - Guti headed to Copacabana- drunk and flirting with Isco. It was only about half an hour until Iker was due to arrive anyway, but this might not wait.

Kiki saw this happen as well. Oh Guti, she thought with a sigh. She looked up and saw Isco standing in front of her. 

"I've seated the last party for the evening," Isco said. "Mind if I take off?"

Kiki looked at Isco distrustfully. The man was up to something. However, she had no proof and Cristiano would be more than happy to not have to pay the man to stand and do nothing for the next hour or so.

"Yeah, go ahead," Kiki agreed. Five minutes later, she saw him head up the back stairs.

Iker, who had been driving toward the club when the text came though, didn't reply for nearly ten minutes. "Can you follow him for me? I just sent a message to Raul."

Hope followed Cesc up the stairs, loving the intrigue of the situation. She spent so much time with dirty drug dealers, she had forgotten how much fun it was to chase after misbehaving lovers. She'd worked at a private investigation firm part time when she was in college, and had spent many a long evening with a telephoto lens, looking for cheating spouses.

Cesc spotted Lola right away and knew she'd have seen the blond come in. 

"Lola! Guti?"

Lola turned to point to the table where Guti had landed, only to find it abandoned. "He was just there..."

Cesc swore under his breath. "Did you see Isco come up?"

"No," Lola said as a dark look passed across her face. "Please don't tell me that little shit is after Guti now?"

"Ever onwards and upwards," Cesc said resignedly.

"Hi," Hope said as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Hope."

"Hi," Lola said as she gazed at the gorgeous woman. First Iker and now Cesc was with this creature? She was going to have to ask her kid for some dating tips.

"Oh, sorry," Cesc said. "Hope works in the New York office. She's down helping us out with the Carroll murder."

"Among other things," Hope said with a smile. Heavens Cesc knew some attractive people. First the waiter and the bartender downstairs and now this Lola. Maybe she needed to relocated to Miami.

Carles and Gerard joined them, having settled up the bill as Lola was flagging down Fernando. 

"Did you see Isco?"

"Left with Guti," Fernando said, pissed off at the tips that had cost him. Guti never spent an evening here that Fernando didn't come off at least a hundred ahead. "Apparently there's a party at Scarlet's.

Cesc started to swear again.

"Party at Scarlet's?" Carles asked. "Maybe we need to crash it."

* * * *

Scarlet had been reluctant to throw this party, but after her massage and pampering, she found herself rather relaxed, curled up on a chaise on her patio, enjoying a cocktail and the balmy Miami evening. She had grown up on the East Coast and had fled to Miami to go to college. A business degree later, Scarlet has realized that all business require a flexible set of morals and the ability to work around laws which served to restrict the flow of money. Whatever she did she would end up breaking the law at some point so why not cash in where the money was good? As long as you didn't take any of the drugs yourself, it was quite a lucrative endeavor. Besides, alcohol was legal and it killed more people a year than all the illegal drugs combined. Who's to say what was moral?

She was chatting with a couple of friends of Danny, a sexy blond called Nicklas and a rough, tattooed beast by the name of Martin. They worked in custom motorcycles, and had been promising to take Scarlet for a spin.

"We should go tonight!" Nicklas kept saying even as he drank beer after beer, happy on several hits of some of Scarlet's finest product. She made a rule never to deal in her house, but people taking drugs on her property was the sole responsibility of the drug taker, so even if they did get busted, she could easily claim innocence.

It had happened before. Which was why she had Simon on the door with the police scanner in his ear. Scarlet also had the added benefit of having one of the high pieces of land in the area and Simon could spot police should they come knocking.

However, all the police look out in the world didn't prepare him for who walked up the path.

Jose.

"Good evening, Mr. Gilson," Jose said formally as he approached. "Lovely evening here tonight. You don't mind me crashing your little party, do you?"

Simon's jaw was hanging open as the man, flanked by his two massive body guards, Didier and John, walked right up the front path and to the door. When he finally regained his senses, he sent Scarlet a text. "JOSE."

Scarlet spotted him before she had time to check the text. Ever the gentleman, he was, of course, coming to see the hostess. 

She reacted better than Simon had. "Jose. What a surprise!"

"Scarlet, my dear," Jose said as he took her hand and kissed it. "You look ravishing as always dear. You know John and Didier, of course?"

Scarlet nodded to the two, stony faced guards. "Yes, how lovely to see you both." And both packing several weapons, her practiced eye took note of.

 

* * * *

"What brings you to Miami, Jose?" Scarlet asked as she glanced at Nicklas who took the hint and went to find Danny for her. Martin stayed at her side, glaring at all three of them.

"Just a vacation," Jose lied. "So sorry to barge into your party unannounced, but I heard you were having a little get together so I thought I'd drop by and pay my respects."

"How kind," Scarlet said. Yeah, she didn't believe that for a second. She saw Danny appear at the patio door and he nodded to her. He'd make sure all three of them stayed in plain sight the entire time they were here. She wouldn't put it past Jose to come into her house and try to steal clients right out from under her nose. "Can we offer you something to drink?"

"Wine would be lovely," Jose agreed and Scarlet let them over to the bar, making some of the most painful small talk ever engaged in during the whole history of the world.

While Jose was engaging the attentions of Scarlet and her men, no one noticed Guti arrive on the arm of Isco.

"Damn, this place is amazing," Guti said. He'd had far too much champagne with dinner, but hadn't had anything since, and had started to sober up a little. Isco noticed which was why he was steering the blond toward the bar.

Which was where they ran into Scarlet and Jose.

Scarlet closed her eyes an prayed for sanity. Could one more thing actually go wrong right now? Why didn't the DEA just show up at the party?

"Hi!" Guti said with a smile. "Hey, you're Scarlet. Isco, how do you know Scarlet?" Guti asked, at least sober enough not to blurt out that she was a drug dealer.

"We go way back," Isco said, not even needing the glare from Scarlet to let him know he needed to get Guti out of there. He had been too busy trying to keep Guti's hand out of his pants as they crossed the pool deck to notice them as they were approaching. He grabbed a bottle off the bar and two glasses, not even caring what it was and pulled Guti away.

"I like Scarlet," Guti said as he grabbed Isco's ass.

"I do too."

"You know she deals drugs, right?" Guti mentioned as Isco sat down on a chaise at the edge of the deck and pulled Guti with him.

"Yeah, so?" Isco brushed off the comment. "She throws good parties."

"True," Guti said as he watched Isco pour out the wine. Isco was probably involved with the drugs as well. No one showed up at Scarlet's parties if they weren't at least a customer, but Isco was too well maintained to be using too much, if at all. No, he was more likely dealing for Scarlet. No one on his kind of salary could afford to buy from Scarlet, anyway.

What was he even doing here, Guti thought as the evening air sobered him up even more. God, if he got caught here it could be the end of Raul's re-election campaign. He needed to leave, he needed to.

"Hi Guti."

He looked up and saw Iker, looking well annoyed, staring down at him. Hovering behind him was a good looking young man Guti was pretty sure was a cop.

"I know," Guti said immediately and ignored the glass of wine Isco was trying to push into his hand. "I'm going."

"You want a lift or do you want me to get you a cab?" Iker offered.

"I'll get a cab," Guti said as he reached for his phone.

"What? You're leaving?" Isco asked with a look of panic in his eyes. "But, we just got here! We were gonna have some fun!"

"Maybe another time," Guti said lamely even as he told himself he needed to stop. He looked at Iker. "Can we not mention this to Raul?"

"He already knows," Iker said apologetically.

"Shit," Guti said. "I better stop and get some flowers on my way home."

Iker did feel for him. Guti was just bored and when Raul pushed him to the side in favor of reelection, it had to hurt. Guti wasn't a bad person.

"I'll see him out," Iker told Cesc and followed Guti into the house.

"So, Miami drug parties. Kinda lame," Hope said as she sat down next to Isco and took the glass of wine he'd been trying to give Guti. "I'm Hope. I work for the DEA."

Isco's jaw dropped. "You what?"

"DEA? Drug Enforcement Administration? We bust people selling drugs?" She said in a mock serious tone. "We get the bad guys?"

Isco looked fully alarmed. "Are you here to bust this party?"

"Nah," Hope said. "We haven't got a warrant or anything. Boss would probably have a fit if he never knew we were, isn't that right Cesc?"

"Probably," Cesc agreed as he enjoyed watching Isco squirm.

"Where did Geri and Carles get off to?" Hope asked as she tasted the really nice wine. 

"Probably looking for drugs. You know, for future reference."

Isco was up like a shot, nearly knocking Cesc down as he ran to get Scarlet.

"Now what do you suppose got his panties in a bunch?" Hope wondered as she offered his abandoned glass to Cesc.

* * * *

Iker sat on the front step of Scarlet's house with Guti, gazing out into the night. 

"How did the dinner go tonight?" Guti asked.

"I didn't go," Iker said. "Sergio covered it. I had a date."

"Oh, shit, Iker, I'm sorry. With that good looking kid you were with?"

"Yeah," Iker said. "I'm beginning to think we're never actually going to get to go on a proper date."

"Such is the life of politics," Guti said, repeating what he heard from Raul on nearly a daily basis.

"It sucks," Iker said. "I don't like it."

"Am I a bad boyfriend if I say I really kind of hope Raul doesn't get re-elected?" Guti confided.

"Probably," Iker said. "But I'm not sure I'd disagree with you."

"We should kidnap Raul. Take a jet to, I don't know, Ibiza or some place and never think about Miami again."

"Can we bring Cesc?" Iker asked with a smile as he saw the taxi pulling up.

"Sure," Guti agreed as he rose. 

Iker saw Guti safely into the taxi, making sure he had the cab fare. What he didn't see was the reporter from the Miami Herald crouching in the bushes, catching the entire thing on film.

* * * *

Scarlet slapped Isco across the face. "Get out of my sight before I add to the body count," she growled and the young man wisely made a run for it. The were in Scarlet's office where he'd found her, and Scarlet sat behind her desk, Danny sitting on the couch with Nicklas curled at his side.

"Fucking idiot. Why, why do I have these fucking idiots working for me?"

Danny and Nicklas wisely kept their mouths shut. 

"Okay, I got Jose in the game room and the DEA drinking my booze by the pool. Guti escaped..." Scarlet rubbed her temples as she listed all of the fuck ups of the evening. 

"I think this party needs to end," Danny suggested. "Nick, look after Scarlet. Pepe and I will handle this."

Scarlet smiled gratefully. "Danny, you're my savior, you know that."

"Anything for you," he said as he smiled and left the room.

Nick winked at Scarlet who laughed out loud. "You know, that may be exactly what I need."

* * * *

Pepe saw Iker walk back into the party. What in heaven's name was Iker doing here?

He followed him out toward the pool deck. He was looking for someone.

Whoever he was looking for wasn't where he'd left them, because Iker looked around, confused.

"Iker."

He turned and saw Pepe, his heart immediately skipping a beat. "Hi Pepe."

"Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Iker said pointedly. "Pepe, when did you get messed up with all this."

Pepe looked at him levelly. "Long time ago."

"This is why you left," Iker said. 

"Yes," Pepe said. "You work for the mayor. I didn't....I didn't want to put you in the position where you had to make a choice."

"I would have chosen you," Iker said as the pain of the last few years flooded back at him.

"Don't say that," Pepe pleaded as his voice broke. 

"I loved you. Fuck, I still love you," Iker begged.

Cesc, who had gone inside with Hope to locate Gerard and Carles, had come back to to wait for Iker. As he watched, Pepe grabbed Iker's hand and dragged him toward the house. Frowning, Cesc followed the pair, and was just in time to see Pepe shove Iker up against the wall in a darkened corridor and kiss him passionately.

Totally stunned, Cesc stumbled away. But...Iker was here with him. Iker was on a date with him. 

Iker was kissing a drug dealer.

With a moan, Cesc returned to where he'd left the other three playing pool.

"Hey, where's Iker?" Hope asked as she watched Carles flirt shamelessly with Carles. On the pretense of showing him how to line up a shot, he had his arms around the younger man.

"He's....busy," Cesc muttered. "Can we get out of here?"

"Sure," Hope said. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Cesc lied. "Just fan-fucking-tastic."

* * * *

"A shocking story is developing this morning about Jose Maria Gutierrez, known as Guti, who is a long time companion of our mayor, Raul Gonzales," Jenny intoned in her best reporter voice. "Last night, Mr. Gutierrez was seen leaving the house of a suspected drug dealer here in the Miami area." Behind her, a photo flashed of Guti. "Mr. Gutierrez appeared to be intoxicated, and many are speculating that he had been taking drugs."

With a groan, Raul turned off the TV. He was in the office early, having left the contrite Guti asleep in bed, and had been hoping that the press had missed the story. However, photographs had surfaced, and the press was having a field day.

Never mind the fact that Iker was no where to be found this morning.

"Sergio!" Raul barked.

His assistant appeared, looking a bit bleary eyed. "Yes?"

"Where the hell is Iker?"

"I dunno," Sergio said as he attempted to suppress a yawn. 

"FIND OUT," Raul shouted and Sergio winced.

Raul slammed the door to his office. This was great, just fucking great. Why don't they just concede the fucking election now.

* * * *

Lola was at the grocery store trying to decide if she'd actually eat salad if she bought lettuce, when she saw a forlorn character in the doughnut aisle.

"Cesc?" she said as she approached him cautiously. This wasn't his area of town. She'd never seen him at this branch before.

He looked over and Lola realized he'd not showered that morning. As a matter of fact, he didn't appear to have slept at all.

"Hi."

"Cesc...are you okay?"

Tears welled up in his big brown eyes. "No."

"Oh...oh Cesc," Lola said as she pushed aside her shopping trolley and gave him a hug. 

He cried on her shoulder for a few minutes before getting control of himself.

"You want to talk about it?" Lola asked.

Cesc looked at the woman who he'd denied as a mother his whole life, and realized that she was exactly who he wanted to talk to. "Yeah."

"Here," Lola took the empty bag he'd intended to fill with doughnuts. "You go sit in my car," she handed him the key. "Blue Jeep. I'll get us doughnuts and coffee. Do you need to call into work or something?"

Cesc shook his head and took the keys.

Lola abandoned the food she'd collected, filled the sack with every type of doughnut they had, and then went to get them coffees. When she got to the truck, she found him blowing his nose with the tissues she kept on the passenger seat.

She took the snotty kleenex from him as only a mother would and handed him the doughnuts. He gratefully opened the bag and took the powered, creme filled one off the top.

"You like doughnuts?" Lola asked as he offered the bag back. 

Cesc nodded, his face full of the treat. 

"Me too," Lola said. "I could probably finish this whole bag right here if I let myself."

Cesc gave her a small smile as he devoured it and then had a sip of coffee. "Grandma always yells at me when I eat more than one at a time."

Lola grinned. "She never understood doughnuts."

"Grandpa always used to sneak me extra ones."

"Yeah, me too," Lola said as she let him have another. "So...what's up?"

Cesc took a bite, giving himself time to think. "I saw Iker making out with another guy last night."

"Oh, Cesc," Lola said sadly. "I'm so sorry."

"I thought he was such a nice guy, you know?" Cesc said as the tears threatened again. "We had so much fun and he was so nice."

"Where was this?"

Cesc sighed as he finished off the second doughnut. "Last night. We were coming to the Copacabana to have a drink, and that's when we found out Guti was hanging out with Isco."

Lola nodded, remembering this. "That didn't turn out so well."

"What?"

"You didn't see the news? Someone got a picture of him coming out of Scarlet's last night."

"Oh, shit," Cesc said. "Wow, I thought we got him out of there in time. We found him with Isco and Iker took him to a cab."

"They must have spotted him then. I didn't see Iker."

"Yeah, he was too busy making out with Pepe."

"Pepe?" Lola asked, nearly spitting out the coffee she had started sipping. "Pepe as in Scarlet's right hand man, drug dealing Pepe?"

"Yes," Cesc said miserably.

"Oh Cesc. Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," Lola said again.

Cesc sighed. "And now Iker is with Pepe who we're trying t bust for both murder and drug dealing and why the hell does Iker want to be with a drug dealing murderer rather than me?"

"Damn," Lola said. "That's like high level rejection."

Cesc let out a snort of laughter. "Seriously."

"At least Pepe is attractive. I mean, can you imagine if Pepe like had warts and a hump? I'd rather be with this warty, humpbacked drug dealing murder."

"Who smells bad!" Cesc added and they both fell into peals of laughter.

"Ahhh," Cesc said as they calmed down. "Fuck."

"Love sucks," Lola said quietly.

"Does it always?" Cesc asked earnestly.

"No," Lola said as she stared out the front window of her car. "No...when it's good...when it's right....it's the most perfect thing in the world." She turned to look at Cesc. "Your father was the love of my life."

Cesc, his mouth full of jelly doughnut, gaped at her. He struggled to swallow and ended up having a coughing fit. He took a sip of coffee. "I thought...Grandma said you didn't know who my father was."

Lola shook her head. "Oh, I knew. I just never told her."

"But...why? Grandma...."

"She thought I was a slut," Lola said. "When I was sixteen I ran away from home. I wanted to be a dancer and Grandma didn't want me to. I lived with a friend of mine who was also a dancer. She got me a job working at a club on the beach. We did four shows a night. God it was so much fun. And then I met your father. Oh, god Cesc, he was gorgeous."

"What was his name?" It was the one piece of information Cesc had longed his whole life to know.

"Carlo," Lola nearly whispered the name. She'd not said it aloud in over 20 years. "Carlo Cudicini. He was the bartender at the Copacabana."

"The Copacabana?" Cesc broke in. "But..."

"I'll get to it," Lola said as she closed her hand over Cesc's. "I fell in love with him the moment I set eyes on him. He had a smile that lit up the whole room. It was incredible. I never wanted to be away from him. I moved in with him less than a month after we met. We were going to get married. He dreamed of opening a night club of his own and I wanted to help. It was so perfect. And then when we found out we were going to have you, oh Cesc, we were so happy."

"You wanted me?" Cesc asked as his eyes filled again with tears.

"We wanted you more than anything I could ever imagine wanting," Lola said as her tears fell in long rivulets down her cheeks.

"Why...what..."

Lola squeezed his hand again. "I was going to quit dancing. I was four months pregnant and it was starting to show. I went in that night to tell the manager. He wasn't happy, but I agreed to keep working for a few more weeks until he could replace me. That night a drug dealer by the name of Rico showed up. He was the head of Miami back then."

"I've heard of him," Cesc said.

Lola nodded. "He got really grabby with me that night. Carlo was watching from behind the bar and he got angry. The next thing I knew, Carlo was flying across the bar, throwing punches. Rico had a gun," Lola stopped, a sob catching in her throat.

"He killed Carlo?" Cesc asked desperately.

Lola nodded and Cesc reached for her. They held each other awkwardly across the parking break, both of them sobbing for the loss.

A long time later, a cramp in her side, Lola pulled away. "I fell apart," she said. "I was in shock I suppose. I sat in the apartment for days until my friend came and got me. She made me come back to her place and made me eat, made me take care of myself, for your sake. When you were born, I couldn't cope. I didn't know what to do. I was eighteen and had no job. So I took you to Grandma and Grandpa. They asked no questions and took you in. My father tried to get through to me. Begged me to stay and get myself together, but my mother...she was so hateful. She called me a whore and said you'd be better off without me. So I left."

Cesc wiped his eyes. "I grew up thinking you never wanted me."

"I know. And I'm sorry," Lola said. "I was so weak..."

"You lost Carlo," Cesc said. 

"I know. But....I started drinking. I went back to dancing, but in the end I got fired for showing up drunk. I honestly don't even know how I survived it.

"Finally, I woke up one morning on the couch of a person I didn't even know, and I realized that I was going to die if something didn't change. I got myself cleaned up. I went back and got my GED and went to community college. I got degree in business. Worked nights as a waitress. When I got out, I went to see Grandpa. He was so proud of me. He loaned me the money and I bought the Copacabana. It had closed after...after Carlo died. I wanted to bring it back. Face my demons and open a night club, just like Carlo had wanted to."

"Was that when you came to see me?"

Lola nodded. "It was. But you didn't want to have anything to do with me."

Cesc felt awful. "I...I didn't know any of this!"

"I know," Lola said. "And I didn't blame you. I'd never done anything for you and you had your own life. You didn't need your drunk of a mother getting in the middle of your life."

"You're my mom!" Cesc said. "And you didn't....you didn't abandon me."

"I did," Lola said. "And I hate myself every day for it."

"Don't," Cesc begged. "You...I'm fine. I had a good childhood. Grandma and Grandpa were wonderful to me."

"I know. And I'm so grateful. You're a good man."

Cesc smiled. "Thank you."

Lola took a deep breath. "That's the first time I've ever told that story."

"Grandma and Grandpa don't know any of it?" 

"Grandpa knows some. I think he realized when I showed up in the state I did it was more than a case of a teenager getting knocked up."

"You should have said," Cesc replied. 

"You weren't ready to hear it," Lola told him. 

Cesc couldn't argue with that. If she'd tried to tell him all of that when he was fifteen, he probably would have called her a liar. Or he would have run home to grandma and told her about it and she would have called Lola a liar. And he would have believed it.

"I'm glad you could tell me now," Cesc said.

"Me too," Lola said. "All I ever wanted in this life was to be your mother."

"You are."

 

* * * *

Cesc had been in the neighborhood because he'd wandered there after Scarlet's party and so Lola had to drive him home to get a shower, and even offered to take him to work. As fragile as he felt at the moment, Cesc agreed. Somehow it just felt right to have her loading his dishwasher as he appeared in his work clothes, looking fresh and relaxed.

"Lola, you don't have to do that." Cesc said, not quite ready for "Mom".

"Never mind. It needed done and I had some nervous energy," Lola waved a hand. "And you might want to clean out your fridge. I believe the moldy cheese is planning a coup of the condiment shelf."

Cesc let out a snort of laughter as he accepted the last of the doughnuts, and he and Lola walked to her truck.

"So what kind of understanding boss have you got that you can turn up at eleven on a Wednesday without 101 excuses in hand?" Lola asked.

"Eliza. She's tough, but generally pretty fair. We've been working a lot of late hours with this case and she doesn't mind if we punch in late as long as we are getting the work done."

"And Carles is still your partner?" 

"Yeah," Cesc said, and told her about him and Hope and Gerard from New York.

"Jose Mourinho?" Lola asked, very nearly running the Jeep off the road at the name.

"Yeah," Cesc said as he grabbed the oh-shit-handle. "You know him?"

"Know him?" Lola said. "He used to own the Copacabana."

* * * * 

"Hope, this is a bad idea," Gerard said, speaking perhaps his first words since arriving in Miami. 

"I'm just going to say hello," Hope said with her best flirty smile that never quite seemed to work on her partner.

"Scarlet is a drug dealer and one that falls under the category of not our jurisdiction," Gerard reminded her even as she entered the address into her GPS and pulled out of the lot. 

"And she wants Jose out of Miami as much as we do," Hope said.

Cesc had been late into work that day, so Carles had holed up with Leo, the techie, to see what they could get on security cameras around the air park. They'd been through the tapes about five times, but surely there had to be a glimpse of Pepe in them at some point. 

So Hope had decided a conversation with Scarlet was in order. She had tried to get Gerard to stay with Carles, but alas, apparently Pep had been on his case not to let Hope wander off any more. One time, ONE time she'd ended up in bed with a drug dealer and suddenly she couldn't be trusted.

Not that Hope would mind getting a little freaky with Scarlet. The woman was one curvy, sexy thing. And she bet she might even get some of those gorgeous, burly, tattooed body guards of hers in on the action.

Maybe she shouldn't be trusted, Hope thought as she tried to suppress a smile, but the sigh Gerard uttered told her she hadn't managed it.

"So. How is Carles?" Hope asked with a sly smile.

Gerard flushed a little pink. "He's fine."

"You and he were looking a little cozy there last night," Hope mentioned as she wound through the streets of Scarlet's neighborhood. It looked so clean cut and suburban by daylight, Hope thought. Who'd have thought the drug lord of Miami herself was living behind one of those white-washed fences.

"Just flirting a little," Gerard deflected.

"Cesc says he's single," Hope said. "And you could use some fun while we're down here."

"I still might..." Gerard started and Hope cut him off.

"Geri, hon, Sha is not coming back. She moved home to Columbia. It's over."

Gerard deflated. "I know."

"And, even if, by some miracle she does decided to come back, getting your brains screwed out by some seriously sexy man candy in Miami while we're here for a week isn't cheating because she broke up with you," Hope helpfully rationalized on his behalf.

Gerard laughed out loud. "Carles would be so offended if he heard you call him man candy."

"Please," Hope said. "No one wears tight white t-shirts over his perfectly sculpted chest like that who isn't hoping to be objectified for his body."

"Like you and your cleavage?" Gerard glanced over.

"Exactly. Besides, if the bad guys are looking down my shirt, they don't notice that I also have a brain."

Hope pulled up in front of the house. There was a van from a cleaning service in the drive.

"Blood in the carpet?" Gerard wondered.

"You talk to them," Hope suggested as she got out.

Gerard nearly protested, but Hope gave him her best you-know-you-love-me smile and he relented, getting out his notebook and going around the side of the truck to question the woman who was carrying a bag of trash to the van. 

Hope rang the doorbell. It was answered by one of the gorgeous tattooed men from the night before.

"Hi," she said, twinkle in her blue eyes. "I'm Hope Solo, DEA." She flashed her badge.

"Haven't you people had enough of harassing us?" he asked.

"I'm not here to harass anyone. I just need some help from the lady of the house."

The man looked like he wanted to bar her way, but she had a badge and had given him no good reason to deny her. And the minute he did, she suddenly had her probable cause and could get nasty.

"Danny, let the lady in."

Hope saw Scarlet descending the stairs in her robe, looking like she'd just rolled out of bed after one epic night. Her hair was in a sexy disarray.

* * * *

Morning after, lucky woman, Hope thought as she put away her badge and waited for Scarlet to descend.

"What can we do for you Agent Solo?"

"I need to talk with you about Jose Mourinho."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. "Danny, can you bring us coffee to the veranda? Something to eat?"

Hope shook her head, "No thank you."   
"Danny, can I get something starchy?"

"Of course," Danny said even as he shot a look at Scarlet which warned her against trusting anything Hope had to say. Danny was distrustful by nature, which Scarlet could understand. He'd left his home at age twelve and learned to look after himself on the streets. Scarlet had found him working as a bouncer in a rather seedy club up the beach. He'd been with her ever since and was take-a-bullet loyal to her.

And trusted no one else, not even Pepe, not really.

Hope followed Scarlet to the veranda which was already cleaned of all the evidence of the party from the night before. Had the cleaning people been here at dawn?

"Jose Mourinho," Scarlet commented as she indicated for Hope to sit on a chaise. She curled up in one next to her. Hope perched on the edge of her own. "Bastard had the nerve to show up at my house last night. Did you see him here?"

"Yes," Hope replied, seeing no reason to deny her presence the night before. "I'm from the New York office," she supplied. "We're down here following Jose to see what he's up to."

"He wants to take over Miami," Scarlet said. "He used to be in charge down here, twenty years ago, after he took out the head at the time."

"Rico," Hope offered.

"Exactly. Jose took him out, took over Miami, but then left suddenly. Left the market wide open and a bunch of small time players grew up."

"And now you're in charge."

Scarlet shrugged. The DEA knew she was a dealer. She saw no real reason to deny things they both knew to be true. "And now he wants back in."

"Any idea why?"

Scarlet shrugged. "Jose always has his reasons, but he never shares them with anyone. I doubt even John or Didier know what their next move is going to be until they're on their way."

"It's a smart way to do it," Hope said. "We can never nail anything on the bastard."

"That's the problem in this business. You can't trust anyone, but in order to grow a business, you have to give people the room to do what they do. And then grow eyes in the back of your head so when they turn on you, and they just about always do when they see they can make more money on their own..."

"You have to take them out?" Hope asked.

Scarlet gave her a wink. "Miss Solo, I would never harm a hair on another human being."

Hope grinned back. "Of course not, ma'am."

"So. What do you need from me?"

"I need Jose," Hope said. "And I need your help."

* * * *

"You okay?" Carles asked as Cesc arrived late with no doughnuts.

"Yeah, I really am," Cesc said with a smile. "Sorry I'm late. Stuff."

"No worries," Carles said. "We're dealing with a whole lot of nothing here right now."

"Nothing more on the tapes?"

"No," Carles sighed. "Starting to wonder that Scarlet hasn't used the hangar to take out people before and we just happened to stumble on the body this time or we never would have even known Andy was dead."

"She's not stupid," Cesc agreed. 

"No," Carles sighed. "Sami called and they're going to back off the investigation. The public has lost interest in the case and Andy had no family wanting to know where he is."

"I'd say poor Andy, but..."

Carles nodded. "One more drug dealer off the street."

"Maybe we should just leave Scarlet to it," Cesc pondered as he slouched in his chair.

Carles grinned. "She keeps control of the dealers under her, we accept that as hard as we work, people are always going to deal and take drugs, and we take a vacation?"

"Exactly," Cesc said.

"I'm in," Eliza said as she joined the end of the conversation. "I've always wanted to see Barcelona."

"It's gorgeous," Carles assured her.

"Book the tickets," Eliza said. "Where are your New York shadows?"

"Dunno."

* * * *

Gigi arrived at Raul's house Wednesday evening. He knew Raul didn't have an event this evening. A speech he was supposed to give to the Miami Arts Council had been post-poned in light of the Guti scandal and he expected Raul to be home.

Though he was a bit surprised to find Raul answer his own front door.

"Gigi," Raul said. He'd seen him on the security camera or he never would have answered it. The paps had been swarming all day, but apparently Miley Cyrus had done something over on the beach that afternoon, and the vans had blessedly disappeared. There was something good about the sensationalist nature of journalism these days. There was always a bigger sensation waiting around the corner.

"How are you, Raul?" Gigi asked.

"Been better. What do you want?"

Gigi held his hands open in a gesture of peace. "Nothing. I just wanted to see how you were. I didn't want the election to get in this kind of thing, and I'm sorry it has."

Raul observed the man who had once been his lover and saw no malice in his eyes. Just friendship. "Come in."

"Is Guti home?" Gigi asked as he followed Raul into the silent mansion.

"In his room," Raul said. 

"Are you and he...okay?"

Raul sighed as they entered his study. "I don't even know what we are right now." Raul offered Gigi a whiskey which was accepted. Raul had already drunk two himself, and was happy for the company, quite frankly.

"You love him so much," Gigi said as he swirled the amber liquid in the glass. They sat on opposite ends of the couch in the study and sipped the fine drinks.

"I do," Raul said. God, it had always been so easy to talk to Gigi. "But this job. I wanted to be mayor for years. Back when I was married to Mamen, it made so much sense."

"And you're good at it."

Raul regarded him. "This from the man who's trying to unseat me."

Gigi shrugged. "I think I'd be good at it too."

Raul couldn't disagree, but he did wonder on Gigi's motives for turning up in the election at this stage. "But now...now there's Guti and this judgmental world isn't ready for their mayor to be an openly gay man."

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...well, especially after today, everyone knows about Guti. Maybe some people still buy that he's just your friend, but come on, the public isn't stupid."

Raul had his doubts, there.

"They know that he's your lover. Make it official."

Raul frowned. "Come out?"

"Exactly."

"Guti would love that," Raul sighed. "He thinks it's stupid that we hide. And I'm afraid if I get reelected, he's going to leave me."

"So do it," Gigi urged. "Make a public statement. Get interviewed. I don't know, get that Jenny Jenkins off the news to do it. Talk about how much you love each other and how this election in tearing you apart."

"And concede the election?" Raul asked, suspicious. Surely there was an angle here. Surely Gigi wanted something from this. 

"No," Gigi shook his head. "Fuck, I don't even know why I'm telling you this. It'll likely endear you to the people and wipe me out of this election."

Raul smiled. "Or it'll be an utter disaster. The media and the public will turn on me and you'll win in a landslide."

"I doubt that," Gigi said. "But I suppose it could happen. But in the long run, it will keep you Guti, and what's more important to you?"

* * * *

Iker tried to call Cesc several times on Wednesday, but when all his messages and texts went unanswered, Iker began to realized that Cesc must have seen him with Pepe.

Fuck.

Iker really liked Cesc, he did, but he supposed that he'd just been focusing on Cesc because he'd given up hop that he and Pepe could ever be together again. Shit, he didn't even know what was going on between them right now. After a wild night of sex, Iker had woken up alone in the early hours of the morning, and escaped as the cleaning staff arrived. He'd left his phone number, but hadn't heard from Pepe.

Maybe they were back on. Maybe it had been a one night thing. 

Thursday morning, he was at his desk, filling out the usual press releases, when Raul appeared. "Can you call Jenny Jenkins for me?"

Iker stared at him, his brain still on Pepe and Cesc. "Jenny Jenkins?"

"Channel 13 reporter?" Raul clarified with a trace of amusement. 

Iker could see his boss was in good spirits to day, which was a change from the last week. "Uh, sure. What do you need?"

"Tell her I want to schedule an exclusive interview. Tonight if possible."

"Uh, sure," Iker said as his brain cleared. "Do you mind if I ask why?"

Raul grinned. "Guti and I are coming out."

Iker's jaw fell. "Sir?" All of the questions were there in that word. What? Why? Now? What the actual fuck?

"It's the right thing. Guti needs this, and I realized, so do I. I don't even care any more if it costs us the election. He's more important."

Iker smiled broadly. "Good. He should be."

Raul nodded. "Some where in the middle of last night when I realized that, everything else didn't even matter any more."

"I'll make the call."

* * * *

Jenny did an actual dance in her office when she got off the phone with Iker. 

"I AM THE QUEEN OF THE MEDIA!"

Her producer, Suzanne, peeked in. "Are we having a daily affirmation?"

"Get in here," Jenny ordered and Suzanne quickly stepped in and closed the door.

"Yes, your highness?"

"That was Iker Casillas on the phone. Raul's assistant and campaign manager."

"Good," Suzanne said. "He wants to make a statement about the Guti situation."

"Oh yes," Jenny said as she actually clapped her hands in glee. "He wants to come out. Live. On air. To yours truly."

Suzanne's jaw dropped. "Please tell me Guti will be there too."

"Oh yes," Jenny giggled. "The happy couple. Here we are. Together and proud."

"Polish up your resume dear," Suzanne advised. "You're not long for this news station."

 

* * * *

Lola was not surprised when Jose walked into the Copacabana early that evening. Ever since Cesc had told her that he was back in town, she’d rather been expecting his visit.

“Lola,” he greeted her warmly and leaned in to kiss her cheek.

“Jose, how are you,” Lola replied in kind. Yes, he was apparently a drug dealer now, but he’d always been a good boss to her.

“I am very well. When I heard you’d opened this place back up, I had to come and see it for myself,” Jose said as he looked around the club. “No dancing any more?”

“No,” Lola said. “The kids aren’t much into watching the cabaret shows any more.”

“They’re missing out,” Jose said. “I’m so glad to see you’ve done well for yourself.”

“Thank you,” Lola said earnestly.

And Jose was pleased. He’d watched her fall apart after the death of Carlo and never could have imagined this well put together, confident woman would ever have stood before him after that night.

“How is Cesc?” Jose asked.

Lola was taken off guard for a moment. How had he known...? “He’s well. Working for the DEA,” she mentioned.

“Ah yes,” Jose said. Of course he already knew this, but he didn’t like to let on. He wanted to be friends with Lola. 

“What brings you back to Miami. Let me get you a drink,” Lola said as she guided him over to the bar.

Petr looked at Jose, his face angry. Jose pretended to ignore it. “Just on a holiday. New York this time of year, not the best.”

“I never got New York,” Lola admitted. “They actually don’t have much you can’t get elsewhere in the world, and it smells.”

Jose laughed. “It’s New York. It’s too cool to care what you think about it.”

“Fair enough,” Lola laughed.

Petr watched Lola catch up with Jose, and couldn’t believe that Lola even let that man into her club. After Carlo.

Juan sidled up to the glaring bartender. “Who’s that?”

“The man who ruined Lola’s life.”

* * * *

“I love him,” Raul said as he gazed into Guti’s glowingly happy face. “And I am tired of living a lie. He is the most important person in my world. And I want to share that with everyone.”

“What a truly touching statement,” Jenny said as she dabbed at her eyes. In truth, she wasn’t even having to fake it. Raul and Guti were truly in love. And that love radiated off of both of them. Suzanne was stood behind the camera with a wide smile on her face. This was ratings gold and they were going to be picked up by every major news source in the world.

“Guti, can you tell us how this makes you feel?”

Guti, gripping Raul’s hand and trying not to cry on TV, let out a self conscious laugh and ran his hand through his blonde hair. “Wow. I don’t think I can explain it. I’ve loved Raul, maybe my whole life. And we’ve been together for ten years now, and I know his political career is important to him, and he really is a great mayor. I’m not just saying that.”

Jenny laughed appropriately and Raul just shook his head.

“And I understood that to be with him meant to stay out of the way. I accepted that because not being with Raul wasn’t really an option for me, you know? But it’s been so hard, these last few years especially. He’s been so busy and I respect that his job takes all of his time. But when I have to stay home because of the prejudices of people in this city, because of the very people who think him to be a competent leader, it’s been hard to take.”

Jenny nodded sympathetically. 

“It means the whole world to me that he’s willing to take this risk. That this might cost him reelection,” Guti said. “I didn’t think I could love him any more than I already do. But...”

Tears started to fall from Raul’s eyes. “It’s worth whatever happens to hear you say that.”

Scarlet turned off the TV and threw the remote at the coffee table with a scream of frustration. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.”

Danny glanced over at her. “So, I take it Jenny didn’t run this one by you?”

“Did she, fuck!” Scarlet yelled. “PEPE!”

A few moments later, Pepe appeared, shirtless and sweaty from his workout. “You shouted?”

“Mother fucking Raul just fucking came out to Jenny Jenkins on live TV with his beloved Guti by his side and they are mother fucking going to win this election by a landslide!”

Pepe was wiping his face with a towel, having trouble processing this. “I thought that he was sure to lose the election if he came out. Which was why we were trying to expose Guti.”

“Yeah, that’s not working out so well,” Scarlet replied sarcastically. “Fuck. Can’t one goddamn thing go right this week?”

* * * *

Gigi sat in his apartment, sipping a fine glass of wine, and enjoying the coverage of Raul and Guti. Watching the glow on Raul’s face was beautiful to see. All he ever wanted was to see Raul smile. 

And when Guti was murdered on the night of the election, he would be the one to pick up the pieces.

* * * *

Jose disappeared from Miami and Pep called Hope and Gerard back to New York. They had been in town for more than a week. The day after they left, Carles was downright moping.

Eliza watched him stand at the coffee maker with a hang-dog expression and felt the jealousy flare in her. She’d thought she was past all that, but seeing him come to life with Gerard the past week had made her realize that she was never going to get over him.

Cesc, per usual, had actually no idea what was going on. Iker had finally stopped calling him, and for that he was grateful. Maybe Iker didn’t realize that Cesc had seen what he seen, and he didn’t want to face having to see him. And if he wanted to try to explain himself, Cesc didn’t want to hear that, either.

He’d gone out to lunch twice with Lola this week, and while he’d not broached the topic with his grandparents yet, he was beginning to see that Lola was going to become a big part of his life. 

Cesc’s phone rang. “Hello?”

“Cesc, Leo. Have I got something you want to see.”

“Uh, sure,” Cesc agreed. He glanced at Eliza and Carles who were lost in their own worlds and went upstairs. 

Leo was looking rather proud of himself, sitting at his computer. “So, tell me I’m a genius.”

Cesc gave him a look. “What, did you create a new, calorie free doughnut that tastes like a real doughnut?”

Leo made a face. “Simon Gilson.”

“Yes?” Cesc asked. “You have a picture of him shooting Andy Carroll in the back of a van full of drugs?”

“Would you just let me tell you?” Leo asked.

“Sorry,” Cesc said. “You’re a genius.”

 

* * * *

“Thank you,” Leo said. “This.” He pulled up a cell phone record.

“Simon has a cell phone registered under his own name?” Cesc asked, utterly shocked. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope,” Leo said. “And we have him making calls to several numbers that we’ve been able to link to both Scarlet and Pepe.”

“You are a genius.” 

No drug dealer carried a phone, used an email, or even had a facebook page under their own name. Well, none of the ones who lasted very long. The fact that Simon had been so stupid as to keep a phone in his own name...they should have found it sooner, quite frankly.

Cesc wouldn’t mention that to Leo.

“Hook me up,” Cesc said. “We’ll make the arrest.”

* * * *

“Abby.”

“Hope.”

“Your local DEA have arrested Simon Gilson. I need him released, ASAP.”

“I’m already on it, sunshine. Scarlet called me before they had him to the station.”

“You always were the smart one, my lovely.”

“You remember that, hon,” Abby said even as she hailed a cab to take her to see Simon. “On a side note, why do you suddenly care about a Miami drug dealer?”

“Let’s say I have a vested interested in making sure no one upsets Scarlet right now.”

“Hope, you slut. Are you sleeping with this one already?” Abby teased.

“Hello? I’m in New York,” Hope said.

“You were here last week. You and your drug dealer kink.”

“Shut up,” Hope laughed. “Get Simon released.”

* * * *

Jenny had been right. The interview with Raul and Guti had blown up all over the world. Everyone was used to openly gay actors and other entertainers, but the idea of a major, elected official coming out was a novelty.

CNN and Fox News had been on the phone before the story had finished. They both wanted exclusives through her for the remainder of the election, and she and Suzanne had managed to broker a major deal for the network and for Jenny. 

Oh yes. She’d be out of this town by the end of the year. Move to New York and become a household name across the country. 

Next stop...

“Planning world domination?” Gigi asked as he joined her for lunch.

“You know it,” Jenny laughed.

The waiter brought their menus, and as they looked them over Gigi pondered for a moment how easy it was to manipulate people who had self absorbed goals. Jenny wasn’t a bad person, just an ambitious one. And she had no idea that Gigi had been the one to drop that story into her lap.

And if Gigi hadn’t been so keen to keep his involvement in all of this out of the spotlight, he might have tried to take credit for it.

“You do realize that little stunt made him pull away from me in the polls,” Gigi commented. “Scarlet is less than pleased.”

“I can handle Scarlet,” Jenny said with a roll of her eyes. “I just told her that I was sure that kind of expose would have been sure to destroy Raul’s chances. How was I to know that people would take his side?”  
 “And she bought that?”

“She didn’t much say anything,” Jenny said, thinking back on the brief phone conversation she’d had with her. “She’s distracted by something.”

“Lucky for you,” Gigi commented. “She could have taken that very badly.”

“I wonder what it is,” Jenny said, determined to ignore Gigi’s attempts to bring her down. “Suppose Jose has reared his head again?”

“I don’t know,” Gigi said. “Honestly, she seems to have lost interest in the election.”

“Well, we need to make a plan,” Jenny said. “Something big you can come up with that will make the voters love you.”

“More than they’re already enamored with Raul and Guti?”

* * * *

Cesc was having a bad day. First they thought they’d nailed Simon and then that bitch Abby comes swanning in again and springs him with out so much of a single charge sticking. 

He sent a text to Lola. It was Saturday morning and he had nothing to do. “Want to get lunch?”

“Can’t,” Lola replied. “Going to a pee wee soccer match. Why don’t you come with?”

“Who’s match?” Cesc wondered.

“CJ- he’s Cristiano’s little boy.”

Cristiano? The owner of The Seven Room? Cesc thought, but he replied. “Sure. Where is it?”

Cesc drove to the park where the soccer match was going to be held. It was a cool fall day in October. The kids streamed around in their little shorts and t-shirts, oblivious to the unusual chill in the air. He found Lola sat with Cristiano. There was a third chair set by Lola.

“Hey, Cesc,” Lola said, rising to give him a hug. “Cristiano, you know my son, Cesc?”

“Of course,” Cristiano said as he rose to shake Cesc’s hand. “Lola talks about nothing but you these days.”

Cesc tried not to get too happy about that thought, but failed. Even after a couple of weeks, the idea that Lola was proud to be his mother made him so happy. 

A little boy came running up. “Daddy, I need my shoe tied.”

“I thought we were working on tying them yourself,” Cristiano chided lightly even as he took the boot in his hand and balanced it on his knee. He could see the boy had tried, but there was a mass of knots that were likely to cause him to trip.

“Coach says I need more practice,” CJ admitted.

“We’ll work on that later,” Cristiano said as he picked uselessly at the knots.

“Give it here,” Lola said as she held out a hand. “Fingernails.”

Cristiano pulled the boot off and handed it over. Cesc watched Lola pick the ties free and return it to Cristiano.

“Lola can do anything,” CJ confidently told Cesc.

“I think you’re right.”

“CJ, do you know Cesc? He’s my son,” Lola said.

“You have a son!” CJ said, alarmed. “Where did he come from!”

Cesc laughed. “I’ve always been here. You’ve just never met me.”

CJ eyed Cesc. “Lola is my best friend,” he pronounced. 

“Is she?” Cesc asked as a twinge of jealousy came out of nowhere. This was a, what, four year old kid? But he realized, that what he was jealous of was the hero worship in CJ’s eyes as Lola helped him with his boots, showing him how to make the bow and loop it. He was jealous of the fact that Lola had been taken away from him as a little boy and he never got the chance to look up to her like this.

“Do you have Dave?” CJ asked as he checked the boots and prepared to take off.

“Always,” Lola told him as she showed CJ the doll tucked next to her.

“I score when Lola holds Dave,” CJ told Cesc confidently. “Daddy doesn’t have any magic.”

Cristiano pretended to take offense at this, but there was a smile in his eyes. “I can’t tie shoes properly, I can’t hold Dave. Why don’t you just move in with Lola and be done with me!”

CJ appeared to consider this. Thankfully he said, “Nah. I need you too, Daddy.”

“Thanks,” Cristiano said even as he pulled the boy toward him to kiss the top of his head.

CJ scampered away and Cesc felt a tear in his eye.

“Lola?” he asked quietly when Cristiano was distracted by a phone call.

“Yeah?” Lola replied as she turned to him. 

“What ever happened to the drug dealer who killed my father?”

“Oh,” Lola said, not having expected this question. “I have no idea, really. I never saw him again after that night. Why?”

Cesc shook his head even as he got out his phone to send Leo a text. “Just wondering.”

* * * *

Across the park, watching from the shadow of a tree, stood a man with a hat pulled down over his features. Not that he thought she would recognize him after all of these years, but he didn’t...he wasn’t ready for her to see him.

Watching her sit there, her face so full of life, with a silly toy in her hands, laughing and touching her son made his heart ache for everything that had been lost.

Her son.

Their son.

* * * *

Scarlet sat on the plane next to Pepe. They’d gotten the news that Simon had been released without charges, but things were getting entirely too close for comfort.

“That high priced lawyer of yours is only going to be able to come to the rescue so many times,” Pepe said as they cruised over the flawless blue sea.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Scarlet snapped at him. She’d had to come along on this trip as Simon had been arrested and there was no way the trip could be postponed. They were out of product. And there was no one else to send. She had to leave Danny in charge, and Nick was passed out on her bed, coked out of his head.

No, there was no one she trusted but Pepe and Danny. Well, and generally Simon, but the dumb fuck had kept his phone under his own name. 

Scarlet let out a sigh of frustration. Pepe reached over and rubbed her shoulder. “Breathe.”

Scarlet closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He was only right. She couldn’t freak out at this point. Even though every fucking thing that could go wrong had gone wrong. Raul was a fucking golden boy with this whole story breaking over Guti. Everyone was touched by his and Guti’s sacrifice and a little ashamed that they had been forced to hide. Even the staunch homophobics had been taken in by Raul’s demeanor. Gigi was going to lose this election. 

And Jose. There was word that Jose was going to return again. He smelled blood in the water and was circling for the kill.

“Maybe we should just stay in Bolivia,” Scarlet sighed as she put her hand over Pepe’s.

Pepe pulled away from her. “We can’t.”

Scarlet eyed him. “Why not?”

Well, firstly because I’m not abandoning Iker again, Pepe thought, but dared not voice. He’d gone to see Iker again the night before and he was quickly realizing that he was never going to be able to leave him again. Not this time. “Because we left all the cash in Miami.”

Scarlet slumped in her seat. “We could send for Danny?”

“Danny can’t carry all that on a commercial flight,” Pepe said. “Come on, we just need to finish this trip, and get back. Have you talked to Hope recently?”

“No,” Scarlet said. “I mean, she texted me about Jose returning.”

“Exactly. Abby trusts Hope and Hope just wants Jose. She helps us get rid of him, things settle back down after the election, and then nothing to worry about,” Pepe said.

“I suppose,” Scarlet said. “Though I’d feel better if we could get Gigi in office.”

“I suppose we could have Raul killed.”

“Think we can take out Raul and that little DEA shit, Cesc?”

“Nah, we don’t want to take out Cesc,” Pepe said. “We want to take out Eliza, or at least Carles.”

Scarlet couldn’t disagree. “Okay, so we get Raul on a boat with Eliza and Carles and then we send Danny to blow it up.”

“You don’t want to blow up, Danny, do you?”

“Heavens no,” Scarlet said, her mood improving with her evil planning. “Danny can set the explosives and get out of there in plenty of time.”

“We should sent that reporter, Jenny Jenkins on the boat as well. I don’t trust that woman an inch.”

“I can deal with Jenny Jenkins,” Scarlet dismissed her. “She is only interested in her own success. And when a person has that kind of obsessiveness, they are easy to control.”

* * * *

Cesc went into the office Saturday afternoon after ice cream with Lola and CJ, and, as predicted, found Leo sitting at his computer. "Do you have a house?"

"Yes, but this place has better internet," Leo shrugged and paused the screen he had pulled up. Cesc realized he was watching Homeland. "What do you need?"

"I'm looking for information about a murder at a club called the Copacabana in 1988."

Leo's brow furrowed. "Back when it was a cabaret?"

"Yeah," Cesc said. "The murder of a man called Carlo Cudicini. Here." Cesc handed him a photograph of a considerably younger Lola with her arms wrapped around a very attractive man. They were both smiling like there was nothing in the world that could destroy their happiness.

Leo scanned the photo into the computer and isolated the man, running it through the face recognition software as he combed the data bases.

Cesc perched on the edge of his desk and watched Leo work. The way he could process the information the computer spat at him was remarkable. Surely Leo had access to all of the information in the world.

Which is why Cesc was surprised five minutes later when Leo announced, "I don't think this man was killed at the Copacabana."

Cesc frowned. "Of course he was- he's my father."

Leo frowned and scratched at his nose. "I have nothing here. No police reports of an incident, no hospital records, nothing. As far as we officially know, there was no murder."

"But," Cesc's analytical mind went into high gear. "Maybe it wasn't reported? Any John Doe's turn up in the morgue with a gunshot wound?"

Leo typed in a few more things, but got nothing. "About the only thing I have on this Carlo Cudicini is that he was born in Italy in 1968, immigrated to the United States when he was sixteen and applied for a work permit and visa. He worked in several clubs in the area, last being the Copacabana. But then he disappears. Didn't file taxes for 1978, and that's it."

"So, maybe the body was disposed of?" Cesc tried.

"Contrary to popular opinion and CSI, not a whole lot of bodies just go missing. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to dispose of all traces of a body?"

"But this was twenty-five years ago," Cesc argued. "And if no one reported him missing, he could have been chucked off a bridge or something?"

Leo shrugged. "I suppose it's possibly, but again, not likely. I'd say your better scenario is that this Carlo Cudicini had some reason to disappear."

Cesc stared at the smiling face in the picture. What possible reason could he have had?"   
* * * *

Cristiano saw Isco coming into the restaurant a few minutes late, uncharacteristically, and looking very worn out.

"Alright?" Cristiano asked.

Isco forced a smile onto his face. "Just...stuff."

Cristiano watched the young man head to the back to get ready for work. It was a fully booked Saturday, or Cristiano might have sent him home to get some rest. His employees all got paid sick leave, and while Isco was a few weeks short of qualifying for that, he might make an exception in this case.

He looked up and saw Kiki watching Isco as well.

Wandering over, he asked as gracefully as he could. "Any idea what's up with Isco?"

Kiki regarded Cristiano for a moment. "Do you want facts or rumors."

"Facts?" Cristiano asked hopefully, as Lola had already given him the rumors. He'd become wary of the man's interest even though he'd thought, at the time, Lola was just being jealous. When he'd heard how Isco had gone out with Guti not long after, he'd realized jealous or not, Isco was probably not someone he wanted to be involved with.

"Oh...I don't really have any of those," Kiki shrugged. 

"Fine, rumors," Cristiano said though he hated himself for being curious.

Kiki gestured him closer. "Word on the street is that Isco has a part time job as a drug dealer."

Cristiano sighed. 

"Oh, you heard that?"

"Yeah," Cristiano said. "And even if it's true, I'm just going to ignore it unless it comes through the door. He's too good at what he does to make a fuss."

"Did you just say make a fuss?" Kiki asked as she let out a snort at the phrase.

"Shut up," Cristiano said even as he chuckled. "Got any real stories or are you just a hack bartender?"

"I'm a very good bartender, thank you," Kiki said.

"You are," Cristiano conceded. "Well, if you hear anything."

Kiki regarded him for a moment. "You're really worried."

Cristiano shrugged. "I care about all of my employees."

Kiki didn't call him on his bullshit, but resolved to keep a better eye on the situation.

* * * *

That evening, Petr went home feeling ill and Lola called downstairs, desperate. Kiki, despite having been on her feet since two that afternoon, agreed to come upstairs and cover for him.

"You saved me," Lola said as Kiki appeared at nearly midnight, the club heaving and the patrons at the bar lined up three deep. Lola was desperately pulling drinks, but even with her and the other bartender, they were going down fast.

As Lola handed out drinks and swiped credit cards, she kept catching a glimpse of a man at the far end of the bar. He seemed to studiously be avoiding her gaze, half hidden behind other customers, but every time she caught him out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn he was familiar.

However, by the time the club closed it's doors after three and Lola had a chance to think, he was long gone.

Kiki was wiping down the bar. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Lola said with a yawn. She'd been up too early for the soccer that morning and hadn't had a chance to think. "Why don't you cash out your tips, I can finish up here."

"Nah, it's fine," Kiki said as she moved to checking the inventory on the liquor, making note of what was low so Lola could bring out more stock or reorder as Lola started to load empty glasses into trays for the dishwasher. "It always takes me a couple of hours to calm down after nights like this, anyway."

"I know it," Lola agreed. Something in the energy it took to keep up with the chaos did not make for a restful night's sleep. She usually settled the night's accounts before leaving as it helped calm down her brain. "I can't thank you enough for your help tonight. I thought we were sunk for sure."

"Can't pass up a Saturday night double tips," Kiki said as she dumped out the can full of receipts and cash. Everything was split between the bartenders, so Kiki started dividing it by three.

"No," Lola said as she caught what she was doing. "You guys split it in half. You deserve it."

"You sure?" Kiki asked as she eyed the pile of cash, not even having gotten to the credit receipts.

"Totally," Lola said as she finished wiping down the bar. The cleaners would be in some time Sunday morning and would take care of the floor and the trash.

"Thanks," Kiki said as she plotted what to do with her extra cash. 

Lola leaned on the bar as Kiki counted it out. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Kiki said as Lola handed her a calculator.

“Cristiano. Does he seem sad?”

Kiki looked at Lola. “I don’t know. I mean, I think the Isco thing threw him off guard. I think he really liked him.”

Lola grinned. “What’s not to like about Isco?”

Kiki laughed out loud. “What I mean is that I think he really connected with him, and with the whole probability of him being a drug dealer, Cris is torn.”

“I wish we could find out for sure. Get him fired if he is, and well, push Cristiano toward him if he’s not!”

“You wouldn’t be jealous?” Kiki asked.

Lola shrugged. “I mean, Isco is hot and all, but I can totally see he’s much more Cristiano’s type than mine. Besides. Now that Cesc is actually letting me be his mother, I feel like a completely dirty old woman lusting after a man my son’s age.”

Kiki grinned. “And what’s wrong with being a dirty old woman?”

Lola laughed and grabbed the calculator to double check Kiki’s cash out. Not that she didn’t trust her, but the IRS gave her hell if the tips didn’t add up.

“So, if we’re going to try to match-make Cristiano and Isco, can we work on me next?” Kiki asked as Lola handed her over $200 in cash.

“You need a date?” Lola asked.

“Or at least a good lay,” Kiki shrugged.

At that moment, Juan walked up. “Lola, can you cash me out?” He was holding a pile of receipts.

Lola winked at Juan. “I’d be happy to.”

* * * *

 

Carles was a little disappointed when Hope returned without Gerard in tow. “I barely got out of the office myself,” Hope told him. “Pep isn’t happy with any of this.”

“Is Jose back?” Cesc asked as he offered Hope a doughnut. He was well impressed when she dug right in and took a chocolate glazed with rainbow sprinkles. Didn’t care about calories or making a mess.

"He is," Hope said. "And this time he's booked a suite on South Beach for two weeks. He's brought Didier and John with him, as well as several others."

"So he's making his move," Carles interpreted. 

"Maybe we should just let him take out Scarlet for us," Cesc pondered as he slurped up the last of his coffee. Hope gave him a look and Cesc looked embarrassed.

"No, we can't," Hope said. "You let Jose get a toe in here in Miami and you're never getting him out."

"We're not having much luck with Scarlet," Carles pointed out. It was rather getting embarrassing how many times they'd found evidence and Abby had come swooping in to release someone.”

"Oh, Scarlet I can take care of," Hope nodded. "You help me nail Jose and the Scarlet problem will disappear."

* * * *

Isco was waiting in his appointed spot for his weekly transaction to a dealer who would take their product up to the north beach. He tried to stifle a yawn. The best time to make a deal was in the morning because the police assumed that the drug dealers were out all night and didn't consider that they might own alarm clocks. Plus, there were much less likely to be bystanders who'd see something and feel the need to call someone.

He closed his eyes for a moment. He really was enjoying working at The Seven Room. Cristiano was a great boss. He looked after his employees and got right in the middle of anything if there was a dissatisfied customer. He never made you feel like you'd done something wrong, at least not in front of the customer. If you had screwed up, he'd let you know about it later, but always behind closed doors. He'd seen David slink out of Cristiano's office the other day for messing up a drinks order, but David knew he'd made the mistake, and it wouldn't happen again.

"Well if it isn't sleeping beauty."

Isco's eyes flew open and he turned to see Didier 's face in the driver's side window, practically pressed up against the glass. Isco nearly wet himself.

"Unlock the doors."

On the other side of him was John, his hand in his jacket, the threat clear.

Oh mother fuck, Isco groaned inwardly, but had no choice but to unlock the doors. He should have been paying attention, he should have left the car running, he shouldn't have had his gun in the stupid fucking glove compartment.

Didier climbed into the back and John next to him. He felt the butt of a gun press against his back.

John smiled at him. "Early morning run?"

Isco shrugged. The gun dug deeper. "Yes."

"Dropping off or picking up?"

"Dropping off," Isco said.

John glanced over the back seat and saw the duffle bag. He inclined his head at Didier and the gun disappeared as Didier went to inspect the contents of the bag. He let out a low whistle.

"This is a big shipment," Didier said.

John smiled broadly. "Excellent." He leaned in to Isco who was, at this moment, half hoping they'd kill him and be done with it. The last thing he needed was to have to go back to Scarlet and tell her that he'd lost the entire week's worth of product. "Now, we have a little message for you from Jose..."

* * * *

Jose entered the cafe and found him sitting at a corner table, face hidden. Jose doubted that anyone who cared would even recognizing the man any more after twenty-five years.

"You need to leave Miami," Jose said even as he took a seat.

"Yes, I know, we've had this conversation," he replied.

"Carlo," Jose said, not unkindly. "You can't do this. We agreed that you had to disappear, for ever."

"What does it even matter now?" Carlo asked as he tried to restrain his anger. "I gave up everything to help you. You said that what I was going to do would be a one time thing. Just help you one time and then I could walk away."

Jose took a breath. "You know I never intended things to get out of hand the way they did that night. If you had just..."

"You let him put his hands all over Lola," Carlo reminded him. "You said she would not be involved in anyway and then he had his hands all over her. She was pregnant."

"We've been over this a thousand times," Jose said quietly. "I can never make up for what happened."

Carlo's stare confirmed that statement.

"But I've tried to make it right," Jose continued. "You know I looked after Lola after you left."

"She gave away our son," Carlo said as he struggled to control himself. "How was that looking after her?"

"Cesc had a good childhood." Jose reminded him.

"Thinking his father was dead and his mother was a whore?" Carlo spat at him.

"Carlo," Jose said. "What's past is past."

"But what about the future? Lola and Cesc have reconciled. They're a family again. And I want to be a part of that," Carlo said, desperation in his eyes. Jose started to protest, but Carlo cut him off. "Rico is dead. Long gone. What can possibly stand in our way?"

"His daughter is still alive."

* * * *

Danny dragged Isco into Scarlet's living room, his tight grip bruising the young man's arm. Isco struggled against him, and Danny threw him to the floor.

Scarlet eyed him as he cowered there, blood dripping from his nose already. She'd gotten a phone call an hour ago that Isco hadn't arrived for the drop off. She had sent Danny to Isco's apartment, and had found the man packing a bag. He was lucky that he hadn't had the product on him and was trying to leave with it, or he'd be dead already.

"You want to explain to me how a million dollars worth of coke disappeared from your car this morning?" Scarlet asked, her tone menacing.

"It was Jose!" Isco begged. "I was waiting at the appointed time and two of his goons showed up and robbed me at gun point!"

Scarlet managed to contain her alarm at this. Jose wasn't fucking around at all, was he? "And why didn't you call me?"

"I knew you'd be angry."

"You think?" Scarlet asked and Danny kicked him for good measure.

Isco let out a whimper as he cowered. "They came out of no where. I had no chance to stop them. I panicked..."

Danny kicked him again, harder. 

"Who was it?" Scarlet asked.

"Those two who came with him to the party the other day," Isco whined. Just let him get out of here alive, please god.

"Didier and John," Danny supplied.

Scarlet nodded. Her mind whirled. What was she going to do? She was going to need to put out a hit on him, but when, how?

She glanced at Pepe who had sat, until now, silently, next to her. He met her eye.

"How did Jose know when the pick up would be?"

Scarlet turned back to Isco who trembled.

"It wasn't me, I swear to god, I'd never even talked to those two before. I didn't talk to anyone."

Pepe nodded. "It's likely they followed him from his apartment this morning."

"T-t-they asked me if I was dropping off or picking up. They had no idea what was going on, they got lucky!" Isco begged.

Danny started to kick him again, his whining irritating the man, but Scarlet held up a hand. "Isco is stupid, but he's not disloyal."

Relief surged through Isco. Oh thank god, she believed him.

Danny was disgruntled. He had more anger to release.

"Go to work," Scarlet ordered Isco. "Pepe will be by late tonight with the usual shipment. I'll send Danny and Martin to make sure we don't have a repeat performance."

Isco nodded as he struggled to his feet, wiping the blood from his nose. 

Scarlet froze him with a look. "Don't let me down again."

* * * *

Isco tried to clean himself up for work that evening, but even as he peered in himself at the mirror at 4 o'clock, a black eye was beginning to blossom and his nose had swollen. Experience told him that it wasn't broken, but it was going to hurt like hell for a couple of days. Never mind the ache in his sides from where Danny had battered him with his boots.

He slunk into the back room, but the minute he ran into David, it was clear he wasn't going to be able to hide anything.

"What the hell happened to you?" David asked, alarmed.

"I ran into a door?" Isco tried the age old excuse.

"I think the door won," David said. "How does the other guy look?"

"Worse," Isco lied, fully ashamed of the fact that he hadn't even been able to get in a swing at Danny. Mostly he'd tried to avoid the hulking man's fists.

"Cristiano is gonna have a fit when he sees you," David mentioned.

Isco's heart sank. "He'd going to send me home, isn't he?"

"Uh, yeah," David said. "There's no way he's going to let you seat people looking like the wrong end of a gang fight."

On cue, Cristiano appeared, took one look at Isco, and said, "Go home."

"Please let me stay," Isco begged. "I...I can work in the back? Do the dishes? Anything?"

Cristiano frowned at the desperation in the young man's voice. "I didn't hire you to wash dishes."

"Please?" Oh god, if he got sent home, how could he let Pepe in to make the drop off? He couldn't fuck this up. Scarlet would kill him for sure.

Cristiano saw the actual panic in Isco's battered face. What had happened to him?

He's a drug dealer, the voice in the back of his head reminded him. 

"Come to my office," Cristiano ordered and turned away.

David gave Isco a look. Better hope he doesn't fire you, mate.

Isco miserably trailed behind Cristiano. He'd had this good job. He was going to try to get out of the drug trade and make something of his life. And then Scarlet had started demanding more of him, dragging him further down in. His mother had been right. Once you started down the wrong path, it was almost impossible to get yourself righted again.

Cristiano waited for Isco to enter and then closed the door behind them. Isco sat in the empty chair before the desk, unable to look at Cristiano as the older man sat down.

"Do you want to tell me what this is all about?"

No, was Isco's first thought, but as he sat there for several long moments, wringing his hands, he realized he had nothing left. There was no where else for him to turn. If he lost this job he had nothing but working for Scarlet, and at this rate, he'd be lying in the ground next to Andy before the end of the year.

"I've...I've gotten myself mixed up in some trouble," Isco vaguely began.

"Drugs?"

Isco's eyes shot up, looking to see the expression on Cristiano’s face, but it was passive. "Yeah."

"I never knew for sure, but there were rumors in the staff."

"I wasn't...I wasn't taking them," Isco insisted. "I just...I was dealing. Am, I guess."

"For Scarlet?"

Again, Isco had to gape. Shit, did everyone know? "Yeah."

"She did this to you- or one of her goons."

Isco nodded miserably. "I screwed up a pick up this morning."

"So why are you still working for her?" Cristiano's expression had softened as he saw the terror that appeared on Isco's face.

Isco let out a humorless laugh. "You don't just quit."

"I suppose not," Cristiano said. "But maybe you could get help. Talk to the police? Tell them what you know in exchange for being let off easier?" Cristiano's expression had softened as he saw the terror that appeared on Isco's face.

"She'd still find me,” Isco said. “I was...I was trying to get out, I was going to quit doing so much and let her forget about me. I was working here and it was going so well and...” Isco broke down at that point and started to sob.

Cristiano couldn’t handle the sight of the usually so confident man crumble before his eyes. He moved to crouch before him, taking his hands. Isco totally crumpled at the kindness, sliding off the chair onto his knees and clinging to Cristiano. He sobbed into his shoulder. Cristiano held him tight, a flood of emotion going through him. 

“Come on,” Cristiano coaxed him, trying to get Isco to calm down. “You’re safe right here, right now. Let’s figure out what to do next.”

Isco sniffled and released his grip on his boss, realizing he’d gotten bloody snot on Cristiano’s crisp white shirt. “Oh, god. Oh god, I’m sorry.”

“I have spares,” Cristiano said as he cupped Isco’s face in his hands. Instinctively, his thumbs reached out and brushed away the hot tears that fell down Isco’s cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Isco said again. “I’m sorry I’ve lied to you and I’m sorry I tried to play you and I’m sorry...”

Cristiano silenced his words as he leaned in and pressed his lips to Isco’s. It was soft and undemanding, but both of them felt the intensity of it. The meaning there.

When Cristiano pulled back after a few moments, Isco’s brown eyes were wide with wonder. 

“We’re going to get you through this,” Cristiano said. “We’ll think of something and we’ll get you through this.”

* * * *

“Do what?” Cesc asked, mouth half full of South Beach Treats ice cream. He was on his way home from work and after going to the shop with Lola last weekend, he’d been back three times.

“Isco,” Lola repeated. “He’s in Cristiano’s office and he wants to talk to you. I guess Scarlet’s men beat him up pretty badly and he wants to talk to you.”

“Shit, okay,” Cesc said as he reluctantly tossed the last of his ice cream in the bin and made for the door. “I’m going to call Carles and Eliza. We need to get him into protective custody, right now. If Scarlet knows anything, he’s a dead man.”

“Should we take him some where?”

“No,” Cesc said. “Leave him there. We’ll send armed officers and a squad car to get him. Scarlet may already be suspicious of him and if they see him leave...”

“Okay,” Lola said. “You be careful, okay?”

“Yes, mom,” Cesc said.

* * * *

When Pepe arrived to make the drop off, he barely even slowed down at the restaurant. The place was crawling with police. However, as he sped off down the road, he quickly realized he had a tail.

"Scarlet, we got trouble," Pepe said as he rounded a corner, nearly ending up on two wheels in his Ferrari. Of course he'd chosen this car out of Scarlet's garage rather than a nice, non-descript SUV. At least it had some pick up, he thought as he powered on to the main road, dodging cars.

"What?" Scarlet asked. She should have expected this. Jose wasn't likely to just back off.

"John and Didier on my tail, never mind the cops at The Seven Room."

Scarlet started to swear. "Mother fuckers. Have you talked to Isco?"

"No," Pepe said. "But I'm willing to bet your little darling may have given us up to the cops."

Scarlet swore again. "Ugh, I didn't think the little snot had it in him to turn on us. How does he even have any friends at that place after he's been playing with them?"

"You did send him in looking like a victim of domestic abuse," Pepe mentioned as he weaved again. He wasn't losing them.

"Am I going to have to kill everyone I work for? Where the fuck is Simon, anyway?"

"Mooning over the bartender at the Copacabana?" Pepe asked. He'd been meant to stop in to get Simon after the drop off, but the horny man would have to get himself home tonight. If he hadn't already been arrested.

"Does everyone around here follow their cocks?" Scarlet said. She was pacing her front room. Danny had arrived at the sound of her voice. "Look, you keep Dumb and Dumber busy. I'm going to call Hope and see if we can't get the two of them picked up."

"You want me to let them catch me, and then we can send her after them for possession?"

"Oh, Pepe, you genius," Scarlet said. "Talk to Danny, let me get ahold of Hope. And don't you dare get yourself killed."

* * * *

"We're there," Hope said as she hung up the phone. "Scarlet has cornered us John and Didier with a load of drugs. Pepe Reina is there as well and she kindly asks that he not get caught in the crossfire."

Carles gave her a look. "If he gets in the way, he might get shot."

"Look, Mr. Trigger Happy, let's not go in with guns blazing," Hope said as she opened the trunk to her car. Officers began to pull out bullet proof vests and other equipment. "Here's how it's going down. Pepe is going to lead them to the vacant lot over behind the Hilton on South Beach. He's letting them take the shipment of drugs he has and then we arrive and catch them red handed."

"So we're letting Pepe get away?" Cesc clarified, not excited about that part of the plan.

"I know, but this gets us Jose," Hope reminded him. "You don't want Jose here."

Carles didn't disagree with either of them. "I'll take the lead car, I know the area better."

Hope agreed and they piled into cars. 

 

* * * *

Both the Copacabana and The Seven Room were closed that evening, to the disgruntlement of the owners of both, but as they sat at the bar downstairs, listening to the police cars pull away, neither of them was much in the mood to be working.

"Can I get you anything?" Kiki asked as she uselessly wiped at the clean bar.

"I haven't had a drink of alcohol in almost fifteen years," Lola said as she gazed at the shimmery liquids behind Kiki. "And I don't think I've ever wanted one so much in my life."

Cristiano smiled. "I know exactly what you mean. Two club sodas?" he asked Kiki.

She smiled and made the drinks, adding a generous slice of lime to each and shoving them across the bar. "I know why Cristiano doesn't drink."

Lola looked at him questioningly. "I'm an alcoholic," she admitted. "It was sober up or die and I finally decided maybe I had some things worth living for."

Cristiano had suspected as much. "My father was an alcoholic," he said. "I watched it kill him and knew I never wanted CJ to have to experience that."

Lola smiled. "That's wonderful...I mean, not that your father died, but that you learned from his mistake. I think a lot of us never do. Okay, some one talk to me about something to distract me from the fact that my only child just went off in a bullet proof vest after known killers.”

"What's going to happen to Isco?" Kiki said as she leaned on the bar. Eliza had arrived a couple of hours ago with an armored truck and spirited the young man away and refused to tell anyone where he was going. Cristiano understood that if was for his own protection, but Isco was so fragile.

“They’ve taken him into protective custody,” Cristiano said. “Eliza said that she’ll let me know if it’s safe for me to have contact with him, but for right now, she is going to be the only one who knows where and who he is until they figure out exactly the danger to him.”

“Why can’t they just go shoot Scarlet and all those people,” Kiki said. “Just like have a day where every one looks the other way and shoot them all?”

Lola shrugged. “Then I suppose Isco might have gotten killed, too.”

“He might yet,” Cristiano voiced his fear.

Lola grabbed his hand. “We’ve done the very best for him. He’s screwed up and I know he wants to change, but you can only do so much for him.”

“I know,” Cristiano said. “I just hope he can help put away people like Scarlet and not have to go into permanent witness protection.”

“You could go with him,” Kiki said. “Run away together.”

“Fine, but you’re leaving CJ,” Lola said with a smile.

“Maybe not,” Cristiano laughed.

“I lost a chance to see my little boy grow up,” Lola said. “I get to live vicariously through yours.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

All three of them turned to see Jose Mourinho standing in the middle of the restaurant. Only Lola knew who he was.

“Jose? What...why are you here?”

“I need to apologize to you, Lola,” Jose said.

“Oh...uh....” Lola stalled. 

“Everything okay?” Cristiano asked, giving Jose a suspicious look. “Who is this man?”

“An old friend,” Jose said. “Can we talk privately?”

Kiki and Cristiano reluctantly left them alone in the bar. “We’ll be in the back,” Cristiano said with a last look at Jose as he and Lola took a seat at one of the booths in the bar.

“So. I hear you’re a drug dealer,” Lola said, not feeling the need to lie.

“Cesc tell you that?” Jose asked, not denying.

“Yes. I was telling him about his father and your name came up. Apparently you’re rather wanted for drug dealing.”

Jose didn’t answer. 

“So you said you needed to apologize?” Lola said, though she still had no idea why. She also wondered if Jose had any idea that the DEA had gone after his men. Knowing Jose, he probably knew exactly what was going on.

“Yes, for something that happened many years ago.”

It was Lola’s turn to use the silence.

“The night Carlo was killed. The man who did it was a rival drug dealer here in Miami.”

“Drugs?” Lola said, her eyes widening. “Was Carlo involved in drugs? Wait - I don’t want to hear this,” she said as she started to push out of the booth. No. Carlo was the love of her life, and in her memory, he was still perfect.

“Lola,” Jose said, “he wasn’t. He didn’t want to have anything to do with it. He was doing me a favor that night, keeping an eye on Rico while I tried to get something done, and then you got in the way.”

Lola sank back into the seat. “I got in the way.”

Jose shook his head. “Oh, no. It was nothing you did. It was Rico. He got grabby and you couldn’t have stopped him, not really.”

Lola shook her head. “I should have done something...”

“No, Lola. Rico had his own rules. There was nothing you could have done.”

“Carlo was so angry,” Lola whispered as the look on his face as he nearly flew across the bar to get Rico off of her.

“He was angry for a lot of reasons,” Jose said. “He was angry that I’d asked him to do it.”

“So...” Lola said. “What did you need to apologize to me for?”

“For getting Carlo involved. And then for the fact that he had to disappear after the incident, leaving you alone.”

“Wait, what do you mean, disappeared? Do you...do you mean Carlo isn’t dead?”

A voice out of the past came to Lola from across the bar.

“It’s been a long time.”

* * * *

Cesc crouched down behind the car. Gunfire blazed over head. No, he was not going to panic. Just because no one ever warned you in the academy that people actually aiming guns at you, trying to end your life, was a thousand more times terrifying than anything you could imagine, ever.

When they’d arrived, John and Didier had Pepe at gunpoint, demanding the drugs. They’d quickly realized that they’d been set up, and had run for cover and begun shooting.

HIs training had taken effect quickly, listing to the commands Carles barked. But when he saw one of the officers take a hit to the leg and go down, Cesc’s natural instinct for self preservation kicked in and he started to have a panic attack.

Hope looked over at him. “Alright?”

Cesc nodded quickly, “Yeah.”

She smiled. “No, it never gets easier. So suck it up.”

Cesc let out a laugh even as a bullet zinged into the read view mirror inches from his head. “Will do.”

The parking lot grew silent for a moment. Carles called out. “John and Didier, we know what you’ve got and who you are. Surrender and we’ll make this easier on you.”

They heard someone shout, “Fucking disgrace.”

Cesc glanced at Hope. “Is that a no?”

“Alright, we’ll come out.”

Cesc peered around the car, now littered with bullet holes. That was going to be tough to buff out.

“Get your hands up where I can see them,” Carles called as he appeared, gun raised. Hope and Cesc had his back, fanned out to cover most of the area.

John appeared, hands raised and empty, but then there was a shot. 

Carles fell and Cesc started to fire. He got John twice in the chest and he crumpled to the ground before Cesc hit the ground, desperate to see how Carles was. Carles was curled in a ball, clutching his leg.

However, a few moments later, there was again silence.

“I got him,” called out Pepe, and Cesc looked up to see the drug dealer emerge, hands raised.

“Didier?” Hope asked as she trained her gun on him.

“He’s behind my car,” Pepe gestured with his head, but keeping his hands raised. He was not taking the chance of some freaked out rookie shooting him on accident.

Hope moved around the distressingly torn up Ferrari, and found Didier bleeding, very possibly dead. She kicked the gun out of his hand. “Call the ambulance.”

Other officers swarmed around John to be sure he was subdued, if still alive, and Cesc, seeing Carles alive, went to hand cuff Pepe.

“I thought I was in the clear if I helped you out,” Pepe bitched as Cesc clasped the cold steel around his wrists.

“I know,” Cesc said. “But you’re a drug dealer with a gun. We gotta at least pretend here.”

“Even if you think you’re getting lucky today, that’s not the gun that was used to kill Andy,” Pepe casually mentioned. What kind of idiot held on to a weapon used in a homicide.

Cesc chuckled, “Aw, come on, Pepe. You couldn’t help us out that one last step?”

“Not a chance.”

Cesc didn’t doubt what he said. Even if Pepe did kill Andy, which Cesc considered highly likely, he wasn’t an idiot. It was probably the same caliber weapon used, as gun enthusiasts had their favorites, but that was about as good as useless in court.

He handed Pepe off to an officer and rushed back to Carles. It was in the rule book- subdue the suspect, then check on your partner.

Carles was swearing as an officer tied a strip of cloth around his thigh. 

Cesc saw the blood and tried to control his gag reflex. “How bad?”

“I fucking got shot that’s how fucking bad,” Carles swore. 

“It went clean through,” the officer told Cesc. “He should be alright.”

Carles started to swear again as Cesc leaned back on his heels, trying to stay alert to the situation. John and Didier were down, and from the looks of the officers around them, likely dead. The area was already being roped off as onlookers were already coming out of the woodwork now that the firing had stopped. People were sick bastards, Cesc decided as he heard the welcome sound of the ambulance.

He looked down at Carles. “Eliza is gonna be pissed.”

* * * *  
   
When Lola laid eyes on Carlo for the first time in twenty five years, she actually had no idea what to say. His face was older, lined, but still as beautiful as it had been back when she'd fallen in love with him.

"I'm sorry," he said at last. He was stood about five feet from the table, unsure of the look on her face which was some where in the realm of shock. "This was all my fault and I'm sorry."

Lola's mouth opened. "You're not dead!"

Carlo smiled. "Not recently, no."

"But..." Lola said and then without a thought, threw herself at him. He caught her up in a tight embrace as they both started to cry.

Oh my god, Lola said as she took in everything about him. It was really him. After all these years it was really him.

Jose took the moment to disappear. While he didn't think Carlo was doing the right thing, he couldn't deny how happy this moment was for both of them, and didn't think it was his place to intrude.

"Oh my god," Lola finally said aloud. "This..."

He let go of her for a moment, but found her hands and held on as they gazed at each other.

"This never really happens. This is crap that happens in really stupid, overly romantic novels," Lola said as she looked him over.

"I'm afraid it might not be happily ever after yet," Carlo said as he reached up to wipe at her tears. "Scarlet probably still wants me dead."

"Scarlet?" Lola asked, confused. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"Her father was Rico, the man who shot me," Carlo said. 

"So you did actually get shot, I didn't imagine that?" Lola asked with a slight smile.

"Yeah," Carlo said. "I've got the scar and everything."

Lola touched the place on his stomach where all the blood had been. She been hysterical, but she remembered the blood. Someone had pulled her off of him and dragged her away. To this day she didn't know who. All she remembered was being told he was dead. She had been covered in his blood. "What happened?"

"Jose took you away. He was afraid you'd get hurt so they let everyone think I had died, but took me to the hospital. Back in those days they'd treat a John Doe without starting a federal investigation. People got shot all the time in deals gone bad," he said.

"But...why did you have to go?" Lola asked, desperate to understand.

"When Rico shot me, he fled the club, and lost out on a large deal that was going down. Jose took over from him and tried to push him out of Miami. Anyone connected with Jose was going down. Eventually, Jose confronted Rico and killed him. Jose left Miami, and Rico's partners took over, including his wife. Now, his daughter Scarlet runs the syndicate, and needless to say, there are a lot of hard feelings."

"But that was ages ago," Lola said. "Surely she can't even know who you are."

"Jose says it's not safe," Carlo admitted.

Lola frowned. She looked around to see where their former boss was, but he'd disappeared. "I think Jose is full of bullshit."

Carlo looked at her. He'd...well, after all these years, he'd never thought to question Jose. "Jose looked after you after I was gone. He paid your bills for years, made sure you had a safe place to live, even..."

Lola let out a mirthless laugh. "Even though I was a drunk?"

"Oh Lola," Carlo said. "What did I do to you?"

"It's not your fault," Lola told him. "It was me...I was just..."

Carlo pulled her into a hug. "Please never think that any of this was your fault. I fucked up and ruined both of our lives. And our son's."

"Oh Cesc," Lola said as she pulled away, looking around for her phone.

"Cesc? Is he okay?" Carlo asked, alarmed.

"He'd gone off to track down some dealers," Lola said. "He promised to text when it was all over so his poor old mother didn't stay up all night worrying."

She saw her phone still sat on the bar and went to collect it. 

"It's done, Carles was wounded, but not seriously. I'm fine. Go to bed."

Lola teared up at the message. "He's fine."

"Good," Carlo said, relaxing the tension he hadn't realized he'd been holding. 

"Do you want to meet him?"

"More than anything," Carlo said. 

Lola grinned and sent Cesc a text. "Call me tomorrow. I have news."

She got back a "<3", and turned off the phone.

Carlo was gazing at her. "God, you're as more gorgeous than my memory."

Lola laughed out loud. "I think your eyesight has gone."

"No," Carlo said as he leaned in. They kissed and the past twenty-five years disappeared.

 

* * * *

Eliza was at the hospital almost as Carles was arriving in the ambulance. He had insisted that he could get himself to the hospital, but Cesc and Hope had forced him into the ambulance.

Carles saw the panic on Eliza’s face and suddenly felt incredibly guilty.

“I’m fine,” Carles assured her. “Little scrape.”

“Is this your wife?” the paramedic who’s way Eliza was blocked as she moved to Carles’s side.

“Friend,” Eliza quickly corrected. 

“You can come with us, but you have to stay out of the way,” the paramedic ordered and Eliza took the hint and stepped back.

He’s alive, she told herself as she was still struggling the control the panic inside her. It wasn’t so long ago that the phone had rung before; Xavi had been shot...

“I am fine,” Carles repeated as he watched her start to hyperventilate. As the paramedics began to wheel him into the emergency room, he reached out and hand. “Hey. Calm down.”

She grabbed his hand and held on to the warm flesh that was covered in dried blood. “I told you no one was supposed to get shot.”

“Blame Cesc,” Carles tried to joke, but Eliza looked alarmed.

“What did Cesc do? Something stupid? Please tell me he didn’t do something stupid.”

They arrived in a room and the doctors arrived to look Carles over. Eliza stood in the corner as they cut off his jeans, revealing an expanse of well muscled thigh. Thigh Eliza knew quite well.

Missed.

Eliza had to deal with messages from the office. What to do with a pair of dead drug dealers from NYC? Were they really releasing Pepe Reina? Could they get a statement for the press.

She got a text from Hope: “You want me to handle?”

“Yes. Please.”

The doctors pronounced Carles would survive. No arteries severed, not much more than muscle damage which would heal. Stitches. 

“We’d like to keep over night,” the doctor said as they gave him a does of antibiotics. “Why don’t you get some rest, and we’ll check in on you in the morning.” She glanced at Eliza. “Do you want a pillow or something?”

Eliza shook her head. “I’m fine.”

The doctor departed and Eliza stood up. “You scared me to death.”

“I know,” Carles said and took her hand. “I’m sorry. They were more desperate than we realized. Something tells me when we go through their car, we’re going to find more than the drugs they got off Pepe.” He kissed her hand. “I’m sorry.”

“I can’t lose you, Carles. I can’t,” Eliza said as she started to cry. “I miss you enough already.”

Carles’s face softened as he realized what she was saying. “Come here.” He moved over to make room, and she climbed on to the bed, on his good side. She molded herself into him and held him tightly. “I miss you too.”

No more words were spoken as Carles closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her. He had missed her too.

* * * *

Scarlet was sitting on her couch in her bathrobe, her gun in hand lying on the cushion next to her. Pepe was still at the police station, but she had assurances it was temporary. Danny, Nick and Martin were playing cards in the basement.

Jose would be here soon, and Scarlet was ready to have this confrontation. It was early morning, sun not quite up. In a way, she was glad it would be tonight.

Scarlet turned the 45 over in her hand. It had belonged to her father. He’d forgotten it at home the night he’d gone out and Jose had run him over with a car. Her mother had given it to her when she turned 16, when she was dying in a hospital bed of cancer, and made her promise that some day she’d use it to get revenge for her father’s death.

She heard the front door open and he fingers closed around the gun. She supposed this was where she and Jose were supposed to have a long conversation about how their lives had be twined together for so many things. Where Jose would try to cajole Scarlet into some kind of partnership or lull her into a sense of security so his back up from New York could arrive.

But Scarlet’s mother had run Jose out of town once before. It would be a betrayal of both of her parents to let him take it back again.

No. 

There would be no conversation. They both knew all the facts.

“Scarlet...”

She fired.

* * * *

Hope was about to just stick her head under the coffee maker. She’d been up for more than 24 hours. Everyone wanted to know what was going on. Eliza and Carles were at the hospital and Cesc’s hair was actually standing on end.

“I need doughnuts,” Cesc whined as he laid his head down on his keyboard.

Hope laughed. “Does someone deliver?”

“I don’t know. Call my mommy,” Cesc sighed as he sat up. 

“She’ll bring us doughnuts?” Hope asked as she got another text. Pep was demanding an update. She put the phone down.

“She probably would,” Cesc smiled at the thought. He wondered what she’d had to tell him. Certainly she didn’t have any more secrets from him. It was probably something good, he decided. After years of distrust, Cesc had come around to the idea that his mother had actually done more for him in his life than he ever possibly could repay.

“Call her up,” Hope said as Leo came in. 

“Cesc, check your emails,” he grumbled as he shoved the agent away from his computer and crouched down.

“You know my password?” Cesc asked, slightly alarmed as the pale programmer quickly by-passed Cesc’s screen saver.

Leo didn’t bother to answer that. He clicked the email program and several photos popped up. “Look what we found under the back seats of John and Didier’s car.”

Hope and Cesc leaned in and saw a stack of weapons, ammunition, and a pile of money.

“Holy mother of god,” Cesc breathed. “They really were here to take it all over, weren’t they?”

“It’s no wonder they refused to back down. That right there is enough to put them both away for the rest of their lives.”

“And Jose as well.”

Hope’s phone rang, she stepped back to answer it as Leo showed more images to Cesc.

It was Scarlet.

“Hello?”

“Hope?”

“Yeah, look, Detective Khedira has Pepe, we’re doing what we can, but it could be a few hours.”

“That’s fine,” Scarlet said, “Abby is going to pick him up later.”

“You’re going to give poor Detective Khedira hives if you keep sending her over there,” Hope joked.

“Look, I need you to come pick up Jose.”

“Jose?” Hope asked. 

“He’s dead in my living room. I don’t want cops here. I shot him, it’s all good. But Pepe is my body disposal expert, and you’ve got him.”

Scarlet was so matter of fact about the situation, for a moment Hope’s exhausted brain wasn’t entirely processing what she was being told. “You killed Jose?”

Scarlet let out a laugh. “Yeah, you’re not catching me there. He’s dead. You want his body or not?”

“We’ll come get him.”

Hope hung up the phone, her mouth gaping. “Jose’s dead.”

Cesc looked up from the computer. “What? How? Who?”

“Dead, shot, Scarlet,” Hope replied.

“She called you to tell you she’d killed him?” Cesc asked, alarmed. “But...”

“She didn’t admit anything- he’s dead in her front room, could we collect him?”

Cesc laid his head back down on the keyboard. “I’m not going anywhere until someone gets me a doughnut.”

* * * *

“Do you have a comment on the police shootings that have occurred over night in the South Beach area?”

Raul looked concerned but determined. “We’d like to reassure the people of South Beach that there is no lingering danger to the citizens. In fact, there never was any. Local DEA officials in conjunction with the Miami police cornered two well known drug suspects, and when attempting to arrest them, the suspects opened fire. One DEA agent was minorly wounded, however both suspects were pronounced dead on the scene. One witness was taken into custody, but has been released without charges.”

“Is it true that the witness was a local dealer.”

“I will make no comment on the identity of the witness,” Raul said. Hell yes, he’s a drug dealer, he thought, but a friendly one at the moment.

Iker stood in the background, his face a mask of passivity. The witness. What a stupid term for a man who, Iker had been told, was implicated in a murder and was only a free man because the drug lord he worked for had a great attorney.

He’s a drug dealer, Iker, his conscience told him. Not a suspected one, a known one with a good lawyer.

I love him.

“Mr. Mayor, the rumor is that these dealers were from out of town and that the witness was a local dealer. Is law enforcement working with the local dealers, now?”

“Again,” Raul said, his facade showing no strain, “I have no comment to make on the witness. I would like to point out that the local law enforcement, in close cooperating with the federal drug enforcement officer, is working hard every day to keep the streets of Miami drug free. It’s not an easy task, and, unfortunately, it’s not going to be a bloodless one. Today we can be thankful that two dangerous criminals are off he streets and that our agent will make a full recovery. Thank you.”

Raul stepped away from the podium despite the fact that the press was far from done with him. The press never were done.

“You’re so sexy when you’re all official like that,” Guti whispered as he took Raul’s hand as they stepped out of the press room, leaving Iker to corral the hungry press corp. The hand was warm and reassuring. He should have come out years ago.

“Stop,” Raul said even as he smiled. “I have to get over to the city county building to get briefed by Detective Khedira.”

“Blow job in the car?” Guti offered as they exited the building and found Sergio waiting by a limo.

“No,” Raul laughed. “Sergio? Guti is going to need to be dropped off at home for a cold shower.”

Sergio grinned. “Of course, sir.”

Guti made a pout, but climbed into the limo anyway.

Iker appeared a few moments later, looking slightly chewed. “I tell you what, the hell with the army, we need to start sending the press to foreign lands to settle disputed. The Taliban would surrender in a month if they had those vampires after them.”

Sergio chuckled as he and Iker climbed into the limo after Raul and Guti. “After we meet with Khedira, you’re supposed to lunch with the Boca Raton Ladies Club. And they’ve specifically asked for Guti to be there as well.”

“The ladies love the Guti,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Raul could only shake his head as they pulled away.

“Has Buffon made a statement?” Raul asked Iker who was busy on his iPad.

“He’s getting ready to,” Iker said. “He was waiting for you, I think. We’ve got him on the back foot.”

“This election is in the bag,” Sergio said confidently. “You’re going from strength to strength.”

“We need to give that agent who was shot some kind of medal,” Iker agreed. “A nice ceremony say the week before the election?”

“Don’t we have something the day before to honor police?” Raul said. 

“Oh yes,” Iker confirmed as he paged through the calendar. “Reception at the convention center. Done,” he typed in a memo about adding Detective Puyol to the event.

 

* * * *

 

Cesc was dog tired when he walked up to the coffee shop where he agreed to meet Lola when Eliza finally released him to get some sleep. She’d come back to the office after taking Carles home, refusing to let him come to the office. She’d taken a look at the dark circles under Cesc’s eyes and insisted he go home as well. Hope was dealing with the pick up of Jose Mourinho’s body and Eliza was going to handle the office.

He would have asked Lola if whatever she needed to tell him could possibly wait for tomorrow, but Lola had insisted.

He glanced around and didn’t see her yet and went to the counter to order a triple espresso and two doughnuts. He probably should have had a water and a salad, but he didn’t even care.

He grabbed a table for two and had half a doughnut in his face when he saw Lola walk in with a man.

The doughnut fell out when Cesc recognized the man.

Lola saw the doughnut bounce on to the floor and smiled. “So...I guess I don’t need to make an introduction.”

Cesc couldn’t take his eyes off the man. “Dad?”

Carlo nodded. “Hello Cesc. I can’t tell you how much I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

“But...what...how?” Cesc said as he finally turned to Lola. “Did you know he was alive?”

“No,” Lola shook her head. “I just found out last night. He’s been hiding for all these years.”

Cesc nodded. “But why? Who wants to hurt you?”

“Scarlet. The man who shot me was her father. It’s a long story,” Carlo said. He was itching to embrace Cesc, but he made himself wait.

“It was a good reason?” Cesc had to ask. “I mean, I hope it is because...well...”

“It was,” Lola told him. “Very good.”

Cesc saw that Lola was holding Carlo’s hand, and that childhood fantasy he used to have about his parents coming to find him, telling him there had been some horrible mistake. That they were here to take him to his new home where they’d let him get a dog. While his grandparents had been good to him, he longed for a happy little family to call his own. Well, and from age three to fifteen there was little he wanted more than a dog.

“Is it safe now?” Cesc asked as he stood up, forgetting his doughnut and coffee.

Carlo shook his head. “Scarlet would probably come for me if she knew I was alive.”

“Oh,” Cesc said even as he moved in to embrace his father. His father had come to find him, even though he was in danger. Cesc wrapped his arms around the man and burst into tears.

* * * *

Hope sighed. This was a lot easier before Scarlet had decided to take matters into her own hands. Did she have to shoot Jose? Couldn’t she have let Hope do it? Cops could get away with that shit. Drug dealers not so much.

Never mind they had the fact that Pepe had shot Didier, not one of the agents. They had three dead bodies and no one to hold accountable.

“We have to bring her in for this,” Eliza told her as she sat on the edge of the desk Hope was using.

“She was helping us out. She clued us in to where John and Didier were going to be. She took out the biggest drug dealer in New York for me. We’re going to prosecute her for that?”

“We can’t just let her get away with it,” Eliza said. “She basically executed him in her front room.”

Hope sighed. “How about I get her to disappear for awhile? Talk to her about leaving the city for a few months. You say you looked for her but couldn’t find any hard evidence, case closed?”

“This is so not ethical,” Eliza sighed. “But if she’s gone, we might be able to round up some of her deputies.”

“She’ll make a mistake at some point,” Hope agreed. “They always do.”

“We can’t do it,” Eliza said. “We need to bring her in.”

* * * * 

Lola drove up to Scarlet’s house. She’d gotten the address off of Cesc’s phone. If he or Carlo had any idea she was doing this, both of them would have tried to stop her.

She rang the doorbell, and was a bit surprised when Scarlet herself answered the door.

“Lola?” Scarlet asked, equally taken aback to see the club owner at her doorstep.

“Hi. I need to talk to you.”

“What about?” Scarlet asked, not stepping back to let her in. She was dressed for a lunch meeting with Gigi, and didn’t really have time for a chat.

“About Carlo Cudicini.”

That did get Scarlet’s attention. “I guess you better come in.”

Scarlet let Lola through the house to the exact room where Jose had been murdered. But carpet cleaners did wonders and there was no trace of the murder.

“How do you know Carlo Cudicini?” Scarlet asked, the name only vaguely placed in her memory as someone who had crossed her father once. 

“He was my lover,” Lola said. “And the father of my son.”

“Oh,” Scarlet said. “Isn’t he....deceased?”

“As a matter of fact, no, he isn’t,” Lola said.

“Oh,” Scarlet replied. “So...what does this have to do with me?”

“He’s been in hiding for the last twenty-five years. He was involved with an incident where Jose was able to wrest some of the control of Miami from your father. Your father shot Carlo over me, and he pretended to be dead so your father wouldn’t keep coming after him.”

“I see.”

“And now he wants to come out of hiding,” Lola said. “He and I want to be together and he wants to get to know his son.”

“Your son is Cesc Fabregas, isn’t it? He’s a DEA agent?”

“Yes,” Lola said. “I need your assurance that you don’t have a grudge against Carlo so that he can move to Miami and we can build a life together. A life your father denied us twenty five years ago when he grabbed my ass and made Carlo have to defend my honor.”

Scarlet regarded Lola for a moment. In truth, whatever grudge her father may have held against Carlo was past. Scarlet had taken out Jose and made peace with her father’s death. However, she was never one to pass up an opportunity.

“What’s in this for me?”

“An alibi that you were at the Copacabana the night Jose was murdered.”

“You have my attention.”

* * * *

“Basically we can win this election if we have Raul killed,” Jenny said with a sigh as she and Gigi lay in bed, a week before the election, watching Raul shake hands with families of people who were affected by the drug trade and were welcoming Raul’s crack down on dealers.

Gigi was not amused. “We’re not having Raul killed.”

“Okay, not killed, but implicated in some kind of scandal. Catch him cheating on Guti with someone linked to drugs?”

Gigi didn’t reply, but rolled out of bed, heading, naked, toward the bathroom. No, he didn’t want Raul killed or even harmed in any way. He wanted Raul to be mayor again, but he wanted him to do it with Gigi by his side, not Guti. 

God, that fucking peacock had the press and the people eating out of his hands. Guti.

It was true it was at least partly Gigi’s fault that Raul had gone to Guti. After the death of his wife, Raul had needed comfort, and Gigi had been there to provide it. But Raul was unsure about his political future and didn’t want to get too heavily involved with Gigi. Gigi had respected his wishes at the time. And the Guti had appeared on the scene: gorgeous, carefree Guti, who had challenged everything Raul knew and brought him back to life.

Gigi turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on his face. He looked at himself in the mirror, and saw the years lined on his face.

When Raul had asked Gigi what he thought about Guti, Gigi had taken the high road, seeing how happy Guti made Raul and given his blessing.

And now they were blissfully happy, out and proud. And what did Gigi have? A joke of a campaign for mayor and being forced to smile in the smug face of that blond bimbo who Raul had loved despite his misgivings.

Yes...Guti had to go.

Gigi stuck his head out of the bathroom and found Jenny on her phone. “Darling, if I had a bit of a devious plan, would you help me?”

“Always.”

* * * *

When Lola asked Scarlet to give up her revenge against Carlo, she also asked for leniency against Isco, which was not granted. Isco had been living in the safe house that Eliza had sent him to for several weeks, but now that they had no case against Scarlet in the murder of Jose, Isco’s here say testimony really wasn’t going to be enough to pin anything on Scarlet. In truth, he knew very little about the organization, which was exactly how Scarlet had planned it. Never let one rogue employee ruin everything you’d built.

Isco sat, reading a book, bored, when there was a knock at the door.

“Yes?”

He looked up and Eliza’s face peered in. “You’ve got a visitor.”

Isco grew irrationally excited. Someone to talk to who wasn’t a DEA agent? “Really?”

Eliza was sympathetic to his plight, which was why she’d arranged this visit. She’d softened up quite a bit in the last few weeks now that she’d gotten Carles back and a new perspective on what was important.

As the door opened, Isco saw Cristiano standing there with flowers. It was about the sweetest thing Isco could have imagined.

“Hi,” Cristiano said with a smile. “I heard you were a little bored.”

“A little!” Isco jumped up as Cristiano walked in. Eliza shut the door behind her.

“We miss you at The Seven Room. We replaced you with this guy called Gareth, and he is useless. He spends half the night checking over his hair, he perfectly serves one customer and then wanders off for half an hour like seating one table is all the work he should have to do.”

Isco was in stitches as Cristiano told the tale. He followed it up with a story about how Kiki from the bar had started what she imagined was a secret affair with Juan, one of the waiters upstairs, but literally everyone in both places knew about it, and apparently David Silva, their waiter, had had a crush on Kiki for years and never said anything and he was heart broken over it.

In the fifteen minutes since he’d walked in, Cristiano had managed to cheer Isco up completely.

“Oh, I miss that place,” Isco said with a sigh. “Eliza says they’re dropping the case against Scarlet. They’ve got nothing on her.”

“So....you might get out of here?” Cristiano asked hopefully. He watched Isco’s face fall, and he reached out to take his hand.

“They think Scarlet might still want me dead,” Isco said as he squeezed his hand.

“What can I do?” Cristiano asked.

“I don’t know,” Isco sighed. “I think...I think maybe I need to go and talk to her.”

“No!” Cristiano said. “What if she kills you!”

“Maybe if we do it in a public place? Have her come to the restaurant on a busy night. I can talk to her at the bar. She isn’t going to shoot me in front of a crowded restaurant.”

Cristiano squeezed Isco’s hand. “I don’t like it. I want you safe.”

Isco pulled Cristiano’s hand to his face. “I know. But I want to be out of here. Back at The Seven Room. With you. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Cristiano admitted. “But...”

Isco leaned in and kissed him. “No more running away. For either of us.”

Cristiano gazed into the brown eyes of Isco and knew he understood. Like no one else ever had. And he didn’t even know why Cristiano kept running, he just saw it in him and accepted it as who he was. 

“Okay,” Cristiano agreed. “But if she threatens to hurt you, please tell me you’ll run?”

“I will.”

 

* * * *

Cesc was happy. Really, truly happy. That weekend, they’d had dinner, his parents and his grandparents, and he’d been terrified that his grandmother was going to be mean, that Carlo would be scared off that...

He had worried for nothing. HIs grandmother had been reserved at once, but his father had quickly charmed her. His grandfather had been beaming with happiness to see his daughter happy again and to have them all around one table. It had been everything Cesc ever wanted.

“Hey,” Carles said as he rolled his chair back so he could see Cesc at his desk, “Happy- can you get me coffee?”

“Doctor says you’re supposed to be walking on that!” Cesc replied even as he got up to fetch Carles’s coffee.

“It’s getting plenty of exercise!” Carles shot back as he adjusted his leg which was sore from the night before’s....exercise.

“Are you wearing a suit to this thing? We need a suit, not just a shirt and tie, right?” Cesc asked as he appeared with the steaming mug and set it on Carles’s desk.

“I don’t even want to go. Can’t you just pretend to be me and limp a little for effect?” Carles grumbled. He knew full well the only reason the mayor was presenting him with this award tonight was because it made him look good with the election just a week away.

“You’re going and you’re going to smile for the cameras,” Eliza said. “I have a new dress.”

“Yeah?” Carles asked with a wink. “Is it sexy?”

“Ugh, god, stop,” Cesc complained as he got up. “You two make me ill.”

Cesc escaped and Eliza took his perch on the side of the desk. “He’s right?”

“We make him sick?” Carles asked.

“No, we’re nauseating,” Eliza grinned. “And...it’s probably not appropriate for the work place.”

“Are you telling me to behave?” Carles asked as he tried to get a look down Eliza’s shirt.

“Yes!” Eliza laughed. “And I’m telling you I’ve put in for a transfer to the education division.”

“You...what?” Carles asked. “But...you’re a great agent.”

“I know,” Eliza said. “But, this,” she gestured between them. “I want this to work between us, and, quit frankly, or education programs suck.”

“Did you say that in your interview?” Carles asked with a laugh.

“No,” Eliza grinned back. “But you know they do. That Don’t Do Drugs Dog we take out to the elementary schools? That’s bullshit. Third graders aren’t taking drugs anyway. We need real programs, real education, and out reach to high school kids. They’re the ones getting into drugs.”

Carles saw the passion in her eyes and smiled. “You really care about this.”

“I’m just tired to this end of it. Picking up drugged out people who’s only home is a poorly funded rehab program that, if they’re lucky, will keep them clean a couple of months. We’ve got to get people before they start.”

“Then I’m excited for you,” Carles said. “But I’m going to miss groping you in the coffee room.”

“I’M NOT,” Cesc called in. “Door’s open, by the way.”

They both broke down into fits of giggles.

* * * *

“Wow, since when do you get invited to important political events?” Carlo asked as he fastened Lola’s necklace for her, kissing her neck.

“Guti invited me. He said that Raul was having all his political friends and he wanted some of his friends there too.” With a reluctant sigh, Lola dropped her hair, cutting off Carlo’s access.

“And Cesc will be there,” Carlo said. “He’s going to think we’re stalking him.”

“We might be,” Lola said. “God, it’s so good to have all this. It’s everything we wanted.”

“I know,” Carlo agreed as he checked his tie in the mirror and kissed Lola’s temple. “And you did all the hard work getting the club going so I just get to turn up and act like I own the place.”

“You get to start planning the shift rotations and making the stock orders,” Lola said. “Technically I’m your boss.”

“Only until the partnership paperwork goes through,” Carlo reminded her. Carlo was buying half the club off of Lola. It seemed in his years in hiding in New York, he’d been living in a studio, tending bar and saving all of his money for their some day that he’d always intended on getting back. “And I’m tending bar.”

“The ladies are going to flock to you,” Lola said. “I can’t believe Petr quit.”

“Didn’t you say he ran off with some kid?”

“Simon- he was a dealer for Scarlet, apparently, and cut and run. Juan says he thinks they ran off to the Czech Republic, but maybe Petr just said that to throw us off.”

“Scarlet’s not doing so well at the moment, is she?” Carlo asked.

“Cesc thinks she’s going to lay low for awhile,” Lola said. “Hopefully this means that he won’t be getting shot at any time soon.”

“Is it too late to talk our son into being a kindergarten teacher?”

“I think so.”’

* * * *

Scarlet had granted Isco his freedom without even a meeting. She had already lost Simon this week, and things were looking a bit grim.

“Danny, what am I going to so?” Scarlet asked.

“Do want good news or bad news?” Danny asked as he rubbed her shoulders.

“For the love of god, tell me there isn’t more bad news.”

Danny took the hint. “The good news is that I’ve worked some deals out with friends of mine in Copenhagen. If we want, we can move there and take over the trade moving from Russia into Scandinavia.”

“I like Copenhagen,” Scarlet agreed with a sigh as Danny’s hands worked their magic.

“The bad news is Pepe needs to talk to you.”

Scarlet groaned and opened her eyes. Her long time friend and deputy. “Oh Pepe, if you tell me you’re in love and want to run off to Spain, I might have to have you killed on principal.”

“Maybe just the Bahamas?” Pepe tried.

“Iker?” Scarlet asked. She wasn’t blind, after all.

“Iker,” Pepe agreed. “He’s going to quit working for Raul after the election and he wants us to go somewhere and get a fresh start.”

“Simon already did that, you need a fresh plot line,” Scarlet complained as she closed her eyes. Did no one have an original thought?

Pepe sat in front of Scarlet, and with a look, Danny got up and left. “Scarlet, honey, Miami is over.”

Scarlet opened her eyes and looked into his concerned face. “It is, isn’t it?”

“You’ve been so lucky so far,” Pepe told her. “Abby is an excellent attorney, but even she can only keep you out of jail for so long. Eliza doesn’t like it that you’ve literally gotten away with murder.”

“And you.”

“And me,” Pepe agreed. “I need to leave before I fuck things up with Iker again and he wakes up and realizes that he can do so much better than me.”

“You love him,” Scarlet sighed, and couldn’t even feel jealous about it. Well, maybe a little.

“You can trust Danny. Go with him to Copenhagen. Bring. The three of you can start over,” Pepe urged.

Scarlet took a deep breath. “Just give up on Miami? Everything my father worked for?”

“Your father was an excellent dealer, but in the end, he didn’t think. He let himself be ruled by pride and he got him killed,” Pepe said. “You can do him one better by knowing when to fold.”

“Why does that sound like a Kenny Rodger’s song?”

Pepe laughed. “Because it is. Now pack your bag. Iker and I will sell this house and deposit the money. You can be in Copenhagen for breakfast tomorrow.”

“You are way too good to me, Pepe Reina.”

“Only what you deserve,” Pepe said and kissed her.

* * * *

Iker looked for Pepe in the crowd and spotted him sitting at a table with Fernando, the waiter from the Copacabana who had just moved in with Sergio. Pepe had told him that afternoon that Scarlet had left Miami and wasn’t coming back, and that Pepe was done with the dealing. Though the fact that he had several million in an offshore bank account with which they were going to buy a beach house in the Bahamas to live made the blow a bit easier for Pepe, surely.

Iker had looked deep into his heart and asked if he was going to be okay being with Pepe if it was living off of drug money. And when he’d found Pepe in his heart, he’d realized that he didn’t care. The world was a fucked up place, and Pepe was going to go straight now.

“Stop gazing at your boyfriend,” Sergio said as he checked his iPad for the schedule. “Okay, Raul and Guti arrive in twenty. They’re going to meet Jenny Jenkins for an interview after.”

“You don’t even need me any more,” Iker joked. He hadn’t talked to Raul or Sergio about his leaving. He knew Raul would want him to stay, but Iker was done with politics. And Raul would try to talk him out of it and Raul was rather persuasive.

“Of course I do,” Sergio said as he handed him some badges. “Can you go meet Jenny Jenkins and show her where we’re set up?”

Iker chuckled and took the passes. Sergio really had taken over his job. He was lucky he was leaving or he’d have to fight for his job.

Walking through the crowd, Iker could have sworn he spotted Gigi Buffon at the back of the room, but after a double take, the person he’d sworn was Buffon was missing.

At the loading dock of the convention center, Iker found Jenny and her crew unloading. “Good evening, Miss Jenkins.”

“Iker, dear,” Jenny kissed both of his cheeks. She tried to avoid looking him in the eye. They had a tape in the machine of Raul kissing another man and they were about to spring it on him in prime time. Well, at least that’s what Gigi assured her was on the tape. He’d only produced it twenty minutes ago and assured her it was in order. All they had to do was press play.

“I have your passed, you guys want to come back stage and get things set up?”

“Sure,” Jenny said as she signaled to her crew to follow Iker through to the ball room.

* * * *

Cesc was sitting at the table next to Carles and Eliza, sipping a beer and feeling like a third wheel. He could have gone to sit with his parents, but then he’d feel about five. He was alone and it sucked.

“God, these things are so boring,” complained a very attractive young man who took a seat next to Cesc.

“I know, right?” Cesc said as his heart skipped a beat looking at him. Heavens he was attractive. “I’m Cesc.”

“Carlos Vela,” the man said as he offered his hand. “You getting an award tonight?”

“My partner is,” Cesc said as he gestured to Carles and Eliza who were lost in their own world.

“Oh, Carles Puyol- he’s the one that got shot in that big bust, isn’t he? That’s your partner?”

“Yeah,” Cesc said, swelling with pride. “You?”

“Gosh, I’m just getting a medal for the work I do with an inner city youth center. We get kids playing soccer and off the streets.”

“You run the City Soccer Clinic?” Eliza asked. 

“Yeah,” Carlos said. “You’ve heard of it?”

“Eliza Berglund,” she introduced herself. “DEA Education branch. I’d love to talk to you about your program.”

Carles realized that Cesc was looking depressed at the idea of Eliza co-opting the hot guy who’d come to sit next to him. “Why don’t you give him your card an you can call him Monday,” he suggested. “Cesc? You want to go get us all some more drinks?”

“Sure,” Cesc said. “Want to come with?”

“Sure,” Carlos said with a bright smile.

* * * *

“So, Raul, Guti, so good to have you back here with us,” Jenny gushed as the pair sat down after air kisses all around. “Have a seat.”

“It’s nice to be here,” Raul said. “One of these days you’re going to get tired of interviewing me.”

“You, boring, never,” Guti grinned as he adjusted the microphone on his lapel. 

“Listen to him. The man who complains I’m boring because I want to read the newspaper every morning,” Raul took his hand and kissed it.

The camera man was eyeing Guti strangely, and the blond gave him a look. What was with that guy?

“Alright,” Jenny said. “We go live in 60. We’re going to start with a few basic questions about the election and then about this ceremony in particular. After that, we have a video clip of you presenting the award to Mr. Puyol. We’ll show it on this screen here.” Jenny pointed it out and glanced at the cameraman. The money shot was going to be Raul and Guti’s reaction to what was on that tape.

Guti kept looking at the camera man. Where did he know him from?

“And we go in 5...4...3....” the producer counted down.

“Good evening Miami, this is Jenny Jenkins for Channel 13 news, here tonight with our current, and if the polls are right, future mayor of Miami, Mr. Raul Gonzales. And, of course, Jose Hernandez.”

“Can’t get rid of me, can you?” Guti grinned.

“We wouldn’t want to,” Jenny bantered with a smile made for national television. She began the interview as planned, chatting with Raul about the coming election and the efforts to rid Miami of the drug dealers.

“You’ve been quite successful, haven’t you?” Jenny praised.

Raul demurred. “It’s not been me. It’s been the hard work of the local law enforcement as well as the federal drug enforcement officers who make it happen. I just sit in an office and make sure they have the money they need to do their work.”

Jenny smiled. “And here we have a tape of you presenting an award to one such officer who was wounded in the line of duty, Mr. Carles Puyol.”

Janny nodded to the assistant who pressed play. At the moment the screen came to life, she caught a flash of something behind the camera and she realized that the cameraman had a gun.

“Martin, NO!” Jenny screamed, and threw herself in front of Raul as the gun went off.

Chaos ensued.

* * * *

“You want to tell us why you tried to murder the mayor of Miami?” Detective Sami Khedira asked the man they had hand cuffed to the table in the examination room.

Next to him sat his attorney, Abby Wambach, but for once, she didn’t have much to object to. Her attorney had been caught red handed. When he’d fired, missing Raul completely, Guti had lunged at Martin, knocking hims flat and the gun from his hand.

“I was paid,” Martin said. “And it wasn’t to kill Raul.”

Abby held up her hand. “If Mr. Skrtle agrees to give you the name of his employer, we want charges dropped.”

“He took a shot at the mayor!” Sami replied, incredulous. “He’s not walking this time, Wambach!”

“A year,” she negotiated. “He serves three months, community service, etc.” She looked at Martin who nodded his agreement. As a matter of fact, Martin wanted to go to jail. If he was taking over as the drug lord of Miami, the best place to make your contacts was on the inside. Three months should just about do it.

“Agreed,” Sami said.

“Gigi Buffon,” Martin said.

Sami and Abby gaped.

* * * *

When Jenny broke the story of Gigi’s hiring a hit man to murder Raul (somehow the detail that he was actually supposed to kill Raul had gotten lost in the headlines) she came off camera to a phone call from CNN. Would she like a job with the network?

Yes, yes, as a matter of fact she would. She tried to feel bad for a few moments that she was riding to the network on the back of her lover, but then again, it appeared he’d been using her as well. The video she was supposed to use to expose Raul was blank. 

Use and be used, she supposed.

She was heading to the national news. Gigi was going to jail.

* * * *

Lola leaned on the bar, watching Carlo spin a cocktail shaker and impress the crowd, three deep, at the bar. Cesc was on the dance floor with his new boyfriend who Lola absolutely adored. Sitting in one of the VIP booths were Isco, and Kiki, laughing and distracting Juan who was trying to serve the tables.

“Could you have imagined things would be like this?” Cristiano asked as he took the seat next to Lola and pushed his empty glass of coke across the bar at Carlo who quickly arrived to refill it.

“No,” Lola said honestly as she leaned up and kissed Carlo, just to remind all those admirers who he belonged to.

“Did I hear you bought South Beach Treats?” Cristaino asked as he dropped a tip for Carlo on the bar and picked up his glass.

“I did!” Lola laughed. “When Scarlet left town, she put the whole building up for sale. With the money Carlo had saved, we bought her out. You tell CJ he’s welcome to come for free ice cream whenever he wants!”

“I will not,” Cristiano laughed. “But I’m sure you’ll be taking him there soon enough.”

“I don’t know, he seems to think Cesc is the best thing ever these days.”

“Yeah, since Cesc’s boyfriend Carlos used to play college soccer!” Cristiano shook his head. “I will never be cool in the eyes of my son, will I?”

“Probably not,” Lola said. “But he loves you best,” she added, catching Cesc’s eye and blowing him a kiss, “and that’s better than cool, any day.”


End file.
